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HON. BENJAMIN R TILLMAN 



BLNJAMIN RYAN TILLA\AN 



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MEMORIAL ADDRl SSIS 





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TABLE OF CONTENTS 



P»gr. 

Proceedings in the Senate 5 

Prayer by Rev. Forrest J. Preltyman, D. D 5, 9 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. F-llisoii D. .Smith, of South Carolina 11 

.Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts 15 

Mr. Claude A. Swanson, of Virginia 19 

Mr. Knute Nelson, of Minnesota 23 

Mr. Janus Hamilton Lewis, of Illinois 28 

Mr. William I'. I'nllork, of South Carolina 39 

Resolution of the Chamber of Commerce and Commer- 
cial Club of the city of Seattle, Washington 8 

Proceedings in the House of Representatives 47 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Coudcn, D. D 47 

Prayer by Rev. I". Ward Denys, of Washington, D. C. 50 
Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. William F. Stevenson, of South Carolina 53 

Mr. Joseph Walsh, of Massachusetts GO 

Mr. Fred H. Dominick, of .South Carolina 62 

Mr. Lemuel P. Padgett, of Tennessee 87 

Mr. Samuel J. Nicholls, of South Carolina 71 

Mr. Richard S. Whaley, of South Carolina.- 77 

Mr. James F. Byrnes, of South Carolina 82 

Mr. .\sbury F. Lever, of South Carolina.. 96 



[3] 



DEATH OF HON. BENJAMIN RYAN TILLMAN 



Procekdings in the Senate 

Wednesday, July 3, 1918. 
The Chaplain, Rev. Forrest J. Prettyman, D. D.. offered 
the folh)\viiifi prayer: 

Almighty (iod. Father of Spirits, make us sensihle of 
the glorj- that awaits the continued performance of duty 
day by day as we, a great Nation, address ourselves to 
the tasks of the day. Thou hast ever been moving through 
the channels of our national historj-. Generation after 
generation Thou hast called men to the standards of 
righteousness and peace and justice. Thou art moving 
with the miglity tides of the ocean. Thou dost call the 
faithful, the brave, and the true to Thine own standards 
that TIiou hast raised for the gathering of the nations. 
O God, keep us faithful to tlie trust committed to our 
hands. We pray that as we come to the day upon which 
we celebrate the birth of our Nation we may have a 
rebirth of Thy spirit of truth and of righteousness and 
that we may have a reconsecration of a united Nation to 
the great ideals of the gospel of Thy Son. 

As we gather together in this Chamber this morning 
our hearts are saddened at the news of the passing of one 
of the stalwart and brave and true men in national affairs 
in our day. O God, Thou are teaching us how quickly 
in the tide of time we are passing on to the great Assizes. 
Keep us watchful and faithful. We thank Thee for the 
performance of duty on the part of tliose who have lived 

[5] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

among us. We pray that their going out may be filled 
with men equally brave and true. Hear us. Forgive our 
sins. For Christ's sake. Amen. 

Mr. Smith of South Carolina. Mr. President, it is with 
profound sorrow that I have to announce to the Senate 
the death of the senior Senator from South Carolina, 
Senator Benjamin Ryan Tillman, who died this morning 
at 4.20 o'clock. Senator Tillman had a slight stroke of 
paralysis on Thursday. It kept progressing, and he lapsed 
into a state of unconsciousness on Sunday, from which he 
did not again recover, and he died this morning. 

I shall not at this time, Mr. President, attempt to recall 
to the Senate the work of Senator Tillman and its char- 
acter. We all know the sturdy character of the man, the 
splendid ruggedness of his nature. We did not always 
agree with him in the positions that he took, but we ad- 
mired the manhood with which he backed the positions 
which he did take. 

Senator Tillman had been in continuous service as a 
Senator for approximately 24 years. At the end of his 
term he would have rounded out the 24 years. He 
steadily improved in the estimation of the people of his 
State as well as of the Nation. They mistook the manner 
of the man at the beginning for the intent and purpose 
of his splendid character. 

Mr. President, at a future time I shall have more to say 
about the character of my deceased colleague, but at 
present I submit the following resolutions and ask for 
their adoption. 

The Vice President. The resolutions will be read. 

The resolutions were read, considered by unanimous 
consent, and unanimously agreed to, as follows: 



[6] 



II 



liLsulvfJ. iliat llic Scaalc Iu.n la-ari] with prolouiul sorrow 
Ihc- announccmtnl of Ihi- death of the Hon. Benjamin Ryan 
Tillman, late a Senator from the Stale of South Carolina. 

liesolved, That a committee of 12 Senators be appointed by the 
Vice President to take order for superintending the funeral of 
Mr. TiLL.\iAN, to be held in the city of Trenton, S. C. 

Hesoloed. That the Secretary communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the House of Representatives. 

The Vice President. uiuUr llu- .second resolution, ap- 
pointed ;i.s the connnittee on tlie part of the Senate, :\Ir. 
Smitli of South Carolina, Mr. Swanson, Mr. Gallinger, 
Mr. Lodge, Mr. Penrose, Mr. Overman, Mr. Nelson, Mr. 
Siiioot, Mr. Poniercne. Mr. Fernald, Mr. Pliclan. Mr. Ster- 
ling, Mr. Owen, Mr. Tramniell, an<l Mr. McKellar. 

Mr. Smith of South Carolina. Mr. President. I otTcr the 
following resolution. 

The V|{;k Pkesident. It will be read. 

T{ie resolution was read, as follows: 

liesohed. That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
Jhe decense.l the Senate do now adjourn until 12 o'clock noon, 
Friday. July .'.. 1918. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to; and (at 12 
o'clock and 1.1 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
Friday. July ."). lOlS. at 12 o'clock meridian. 



Frhuv, July .5, lois. 
A message from the House of Representatives, by D. K. 
Hempstead, its enrolling clerk, transmitted to the Senate 
resolutions on the death of Hon. Benjamin R. Tillman, 
late a Senator from the State of South Carolina. 



[7] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

Thursday, August 22, 1918. 

Mr. Poindexter. Mr. President, I present a resolution of 
the Alaska Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce and 
Commercial Club of the city of Seattle, which resolution 
was also concurred in by the Chamber of Commerce and 
the Commercial Club itself. It is an expression of appre- 
ciation for the services to the north Pacific coast of Hon. 
B. R. Tillman, late a Senator from South Carolina. It is 
a brief and appropriate and sincere expression of appre- 
ciation of the responsive interest which the late Senator 
always took in matters relating to the north Pacific coast, 
particularly in connection with the Navy. I ask that it be 
printed in the Record. 

There being no objection, the resolution was ordered to 
be printed in the Record, as follows : 

SEATTLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL CLUB. 

Resolution commemorative of the late Hon. B. R. Tillman. 

In the passing of the Hon. B. R. Tillman, chairman of the 
Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, Alaska has lost a true friend. 
Advised as to the potential wealth of Alaska's undeveloped re- 
sources, he labored for a rational development that would make 
for the welfare of her people. A statesman of broad vision, he 
realized that the extremes of governmental policy toward the 
opening of Alaska's resources tended to economic loss and waste, 
instead of utilization and conservation. 

For the use of Alaska coal to supply the needs of the Navy on 
the Pacific, Senator Tillman was an earnest and active worker, 
who exerted a strong influence in bringing about this nationally 
desired result. 

In behalf of the friends of Alaska the Alaska Bureau of the 
Seattle Chamber of Commerce and Commercial Club expresses 
its sincere grief in the national loss of a champion whose every 
effort was for the welfare and advancement of mankind. 

Adopted by the Alaska Bureau, Seattle Chamber of Commerce 
and Commercial Club, July 30, 1918. 

.1. L. McPherson, Secretary. 



[8] 



Adopted i>\ till- trusties ul llie Seattle Chamber nf Ct.imiKri 
and Commercial Qub August 6. 1918. 

G. C. CoRDAUiY, 

Executive Secrelary. 



FniDAY, Dt'cember 6. 1918. 
Mr. Smitii of South Ciiroliiiu. Mr. Prcsidint, I ask 
unaninioiis consi-nt that tlu- Senate hold a session on Sun- 
day, Deceniljer !.'», for tlie purpose of eulogies on the life 
and character nf my late colleague. Senator Benjamin 

HVAN Tll.l.MAN. 

Tlie Vicj: Piiksidknt. ,\t what hour? 

Mr. Smith of South Carolina. BeginiiiiiiJ al 11 o'clock. 
The Vici: Puksidknt. Is there ohjection.' Tlic Chair 
hears none, and it is so ordered. 



SiNOAY. Drrrmlirr I'), I'.IIH. 

The Senate met al 11 oVh.ck a. ni. 

The Cliaplaiii. M.v. FornsI .1. Pn tfyiiiMii. D. 0.. ofTered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty (lod. we an* calU-d togellur in Thy providence 
that Wf may accord a national honor lo the memory of a 
disliiigtiished Miniht r of this body. We pause in the 
mi<lsl of the pressing duties of these fateful day.s, and in 
the golden moments of the holy Sabbath we perform this 
.sacred duty. 

It is our t)hligation to inscribe upon Die unpirisliablc 
honor roll of our departed statesmen the name of the 
Sentitor from South Carolina. Thou didst endow him 
with many qualities of heart and mind that made him a 
power in our national councils. Passionate in his ad- 
vocacy of the rights of all men. devoted in his friendships, 
con.sistent with the principles which he avowed in his 
,)ublie life. 

[9] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

By liis far-sighted statesmanship, by his high sense of 
honor, by his strong defense of his political creed, he has 
made his name safe in the annals of American history. 

We would not seek to assess the value of such a career. 
His record is with Thee, to whom we must all turn at last 
to give an account of our stewardship. 

We pray that to-day as we recall his service to his coun- 
try we may feel the ever-increasing responsibility of rep- 
resenting great sovereign States in this Senate. As we 
stand in this place of world-wide influence and power we 
seek the endowment of the spirit of righteousness to direct 
and control our lives according to the Divine will. 

We serve our fellow men in the name and for the sake 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

The Vice President being absent, the President pro tem- 
pore [Mr. Saulsbury] assumed the chair. 

Mr. Smith of South Carolina. Mr. President, I offer the 
following resolutions and ask for their adoption. 

The President pro tempore. The Secretary will read the 
resolutions. 

Secretary (James M. Baker) read the resolutions (S. 
Res. 388) and they were considered by unanimous con- 
sent, and unanimously agreed to, as follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate express its profound sorrow in 
the death of the Hon. Benjamin Ryan Tillman, late a Senator 
from the State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased the Senate in pursuance of an order heretofore made 
assembles to enable his associates to pay proper tribute to his 
high character and distinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions 
to the House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to 
the family of the deceased. 



[10] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Smith, ok Sorni Carolina 

Mr. President: Senator Benjamin Ryan Tillman was 
born in 1847, which made him just the right age to receive 
childhood's vivid if exaggerated impression of the epoch- 
making jjcriod immediately preceding and cuhiiinating 
in the Civil War. The incidents and experiences that one 
must have witnessed and borne during that time, espe- 
cially at the age of young Tillman, must have had a pro- 
found effect upon his character and his subsequent atti- 
tude as a man toward men and affairs. 

The reconstruction period immediately following the 
war was fraugiit with more trials, tested more thoroughly 
the moral, mental, and patriotic fiber of men, than the ac- 
tual period of the war itself. The struggle of the war itself 
was terrible, but tlie object to be attained was worthy of all 
sacrifice from the standpoint of the South. The orgy of 
misrule and corruption, during reconstruction times, 
threatened to engulf and destroy our civilization in that 
section. Rapine and lust, greed and avarice, in their most 
revolting form assumed to overrule virtue and decency, 
honesty and righteousness, in both civil and political life. 

Prominent amongst those who took part in stemming 
this unholy tide was young Benjamin Ryan Tillman. He 
did his part in bringing about the dissipation of this 
hideous nightmare of corruption and misrule, and helped, 
through the agency of the famous Red Shirt Brigade, to 
bring about the reestablishment of decent government in 
South Carolina and the liberation of its homes from the 
threatened beastly defilement. 
[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

When this task was accomplished and South Carolina, 
like other Southern States, took up her burden of rebuild- 
ing the waste places, of gathering together what resources 
she might in order to retrieve some semblance of the con- 
dition that inade life tolerable, young Tillman also did his 
part. He, as his family before him had done, settled near 
Edgefield, S. C, and devoted himself to farming. Per- 
haps of all the occupations that felt the cruel grind of that 
period the farmers were the greatest sufferers. He knew 
at first hand by bitter experience their heritage of hard- 
ships, and his first appearance in the arena as a public 
man was in the advocacy of means looking toward the bet- 
terment of the conditions under which the farmer strug- 
gled. This first appearance at Bennettsville, S. C, in 1885, 
was the index to his future public career. His writings 
and speeches were devoted to the agitation of questions 
looking toward the betterment of agricultural conditions. 
In 1890 he became a candidate for governor, and was 
elected as a representative of the agricultural element of 
the State. He was reelected in 1892. During his official 
career as governor he devoted a great deal of time and 
attention to the establishment of Clemson Agricultural 
College. This college, as a distinct separate educational 
institution, was established on the old John C. Calhoun 
estate. Fort Hill, in Oconee County, S. C. He devoted 
every available energy to the development and progress of 
this institution, and lived to see it become one of the fore- 
most agricultural institutions of America. 

He also was instrumental in the establishment at Rock 
Hill, S. C, of the Winthrop Normal and Industrial College 
for Women. These two institutions are perhaps the most 
enduring monuments to Senator Tillman's devotion to the 
cause of education, particularly for those classes for whose 
welfare he had written and worked so hard. 



[12] 



AuDHEss OF Mr. Smith, of South Carolina 

In 1894 he became a candidate for and was elected to the 
United States Senate to succeed Gen. M. C. Butler. In this 
capacity as a public man he served until his death. 

Some of the most interesting things in connection with 
Senator Tillman's career as a public man were the estab- 
lishment of the dispensary' system in South Carolina for 
the control of the purchase, manufacture, and sale of 
whisky by the State. Through subsequent modifications 
of the law it was finally abolished. In the constitutional 
convention of 1895 Senator Tillman was instrumental in 
having written into the constitution a prohibition against 
the manufacture and sale of whisky by private indi- 
viduals, so that during the modification of the dispensarj' 
law it finally became an issue as to local option between 
the counties as political units being allowed to sell whisky 
or prohibition. Prohibition finally won. Perhaps the 
most notable innovation in our political affairs during his 
career was the inauguration of the primary system for the 
selection of candidates for the Democratic Party. Sen- 
ator Tillman was prominent in bringing about the adop- 
tion of the primary- system in South Carolina for the nam- 
ing of candidates in lieu of the old convention system. 

It is interesting to note the subsc(iucnt adoption of this 
plan more or less throughout the counfr>'. 

As a Senator he made a name for himself as a bold and 
aggressive debater. Mis views on public affairs he never 
hesitated to assert plainly and unctpiivocally. nor did he 
hesitate to challenge fearlessly what he did not approve. 
He loved his State in his own peculiar passionate way and 
guarded her rights with a fierj* zeal characteristic of him. 
His hold upon the people of South Carolina was without 
parallel; he appealed to their imagination and dominated 
the State's political life as perhaps no other individual in 
her histon*' had done. In a similar sense this was true of 
his hold upon the American public; that is, in his power 
[13] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

to awaken their interest and appeal to their imagination. 
I knew very little of Senator Tillman's domestic life, 
but from what I was privileged to see of the relation that 
existed between him and Mrs. Tillman there was often 
called to my mind, as he himself was fond of quoting, 
that immortal verse of Burns: 

John Anderson my jo, John, 

When we were first acquent, 
Your locks were like the raven. 

Your bonie brow was brent; 
But now your brow is held, John, 

Your locks are like the snaw, 
But blessings on your frosty pow, 

John Anderson my jo! 

John Anderson ray jo, John, 

We clamb the hill thegither, 
And monie a cantie day, John, 

We've had wi' ane anither; 
Now we maun totter down, John, 

And hand in hand we'll go. 
And sleep thegither at the foot, 

John Anderson my jo! 

No two have ever lived in the spirit of tliis poem as Mr. 
and Mrs. Tillman and the last verse was recalled to my 
mind whenever I saw them on the street or in their home. 

The latter years of Senator Tillman's life were 
shadowed by an affliction which ultimately resulted in 
his death. The manner in which he bore this affliction 
was characteristic of the man. He refused to yield the 
field of his activities because of it, and only succumbed 
when death laid its hand upon him. He died as he had 
often expressed a desire to die — actually in harness. His 
death ended the career of one of the most remarkable 
characters my State ever produced. 



[14] 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachisetts 

Mr. President: Senator Tillman did not come to the 
Senate in 1895, as many do, a man unknown beyond the 
limits of his own State. His reputation preceded his 
coming. The countn*' had heard about him. The general 
public knowledge of him was not, perhaps, extensive, but 
it was distinct and emphatic. To those who looked below 
the surface it was apparent that here was a man who had 
wrested control of a famous State from a body of men 
who, from generation to generation, for 200 years had 
dominated its politics and its social and economic life. 
Both at home and in Washington they had brought forth 
distinguished leaders in public life, who had impressed 
themselves and their opinions deeply upon the history of 
the countr\- and made South Carolina a power to be 
reckoned with throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries. Whatever their mistakes may have been, how- 
ever extreme their views, they had been remarkable for 
ability, courage, and force displayed not only by individ- 
uals but by families, whose names and achievements were 
familiar to all the people of the United States. They had 
retained their power after the Civil War as it had existed 
before the great conflict which they had done so much to 
lead and provoke. Then, as the ccntun.- closed, they were 
suddenly overwhelmed and defeated by the forces which 
rallied behind Senator Tillman. 

To the mass of the American people who did not fully 
realize the deeper significance of Senator Tillman's vic- 
tor\' he was known as the author of the dispensan,' laws, 
and his methods of discussion, his " pitchfork." and his 
reckless frankness in the use of language, of which he had 
ample command, had made him a picturesque figure and 
[15] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 



greatly excited public curiosity as to his activities when 
he reached the Senate. It was for the most part by no 
means either a friendly or a sympathetic curiosity, but it 
was both vivid and strong, for it was understood that he 
intended to revolutionize the Senate, as he had already 
revolutionized South Carolina. 

Senator Tillman was neither the first nor the last who 
has come to the Senate with such a purpose as that at- 
tributed to him, and anyone who has studied the history or 
watched the movements of the Senate for a number of 
years knows what has happened to those who have come 
in from another field determined to change the Senate and 
overturn its ways and methods. The first fact they dis- 
cover is that the Senate takes a local or State reputation 
very calmly and is apt to remain undazzled by its beams. 
Power and reputation in the Senate must be acquired in 
the Senate itself. The Senate as a body is very tolerant 
and generous. There is more personal good feeling, less 
personal animosity, a more complete desire to be consid- 
ered with each other, and a greater loyalty to the Senate 
itself and its traditions than in any other legislative body 
in the world. But on one point the Senate is firm. It 
declines to be bored. Its method of declination may not 
be obvious, but it is highly effective. The men who have 
come here proclaiming their intention of revolutionizmg 
and reforming the Senate have fallen in practice into two 
classes— those who insisted on continuing to attack the 
Senate and all its habits and methods and those who 
sooner or later, generally sooner than later, accepted the 
Senate traditions and ways of life. The former, very few 
in number, became bores and found themselves unheard 
and without infiuence and have been forgotten. The latter 
have been successful and often distinguished Senators, m- 
flucntial and cficctive. It is needless to say that Senator 
TU.LMAN belonged preeminenlly to the second class. He 
[16] 



AooRESs OF Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 

never bored anyone. However widely one might disagree 
with him he was always and unfailingly interesting. He 
came not only to accept the Senate but to be one of its 
most ardent defenders, supporting its rules, habits, and 
traditions, and very proud of its history and of its power 
and importance. 

This came about through no sacrifice of principle, but 
simply because he was a man naturally of strong good 
sense and open to conviction. He startled the country and 
the Senate at the very outset by an unbridled attack upon 
President Cleveland, and I think he even then began to see 
that in the Senate at least this was not the best method to 
advance the policies or the principles he had at heart. He 
came to the Senate also with bitter and deep-seated dis- 
like, I will not say prejudice, against all Republicans and 
all northern men. Nevertheless, among Republicans and 
northern men he found before many years had passed 
some of his warmest personal friends. In these last years 
he one day made a short speech in the Senate in which he 
admitted that he had been mistaken in these early opin- 
ions and that he had in these i-espects changed his mind. 
It seemed, I am sure, to those who heard or read what he 
said, an avowal at once manly and touching. But it was 
something more than this. It showed willingness and 
ability to learn, admirable and essential capacities through- 
out life, and especially to be cherished in old age. It also 
showed the courage to admit that he had been wrong, and 
this is a loftier and rarer attribute and a very fine qualitj'^ 
indeed. 

But if Senator Tillman learned to know the Senate 
and his fellow Senators better and to like them better as 
the years passed, the Senate also learned much about him. 
Everyone was aware that he was able, forceful, and pos- 
sessed of unbounded energy. But Senators found also 
that the blunt words and the stormy manner when he 
115070°— 19 2 [17] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

was roused were far more in evidence in public than in 
private life. Behind all this was a kindly nature, plenty 
of humor, a serious outlook on life, and real sincerity of 
purpose. One at least of those who came in the process 
of time to know him well discovered that Senator Till- 
man had knowledge of and genuine fondness for litera- 
ture and poetry — ^good literature and good poetry, be it 
said — and above all that he was a lover of Shakespeare, 
a phase of his character not generally appreciated. He 
was a conspicuous and active Senator for many years and 
worked hard and faithfully until he was stricken by illness 
some years ago. After his partial recovery he went on 
with an uncomplaining and unfailing courage which com- 
manded everyone's admiration until the end came. Never 
did he appear better than in his attitude toward the war. 
He never had any doubts. He recognized what Germany 
meant, and he was for the right and for the war with all 
his strength. During these years of physical trial and 
endurance he turned more than ever toward the friends 
with whom he had been long in service, and grew ever 
gentler and more kindly. The affection and sympathy 
which I think he craved, for he had an emotional nature, 
were freely given. After a long day of many conflicts the 
evening was calm and peaceful. As I talked with him and 
watched him amid the lengthening shadows when the sun 
of life was slowly setting I often thought of Dr. Holmes's 
lines written for his own seventieth birthday: 

Still as the silver cord gets worn and slender, 

Its lightened task-work tugs with lessening strain, 
Hands get more helpful, voices, grown more tender, 

Soothe with their softened tones the slumberous brain. 
So when the iron portal shuts behind us, 

And life forgets us in its noise and whirl, 
Visions that shunned the glaring noonday find us, 

And glimmering starlight shows the gates of pearl. 

[18] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 

Mr. President: Senator Tillman was one of the most 
striking and picturesque characters in the public life of 
America. No one interested or attracted the attention of 
the public more than he. His mental qualities and his 
physical appearance were each peculiarly fascinating. 
He possessed a strong, robust, and compact body; a firm, 
decisive step; large, expansive, and magnificent brow; 
clear, dark, and fearless eyes; firm and resolute mouth 
and chin, indicative of unflinching courage and resolution. 
He had a sombre, serious aspect, which could scarcely 
conceal the fierce flames of passion and conviction which 
surged beneath. In speaking, he made very few gestures, 
but occasionally emphasized a point by a peculiar gesture 
of arm and finger, which always left a profound impres- 
sion upon his hearers. His strong physical personality al- 
ways left upon his auditors, whether of the Senate or pub- 
lic assembly, a most favorable impression. He had a 
strong, clear, and penetrating voice, falling pleasantly on 
the ears, never monotonous, because frequently tinged 
with sarcasm or resounding with indignation. These 
large physical advantages, combined with his mental 
qualities, made him one of the most effective speakers of 
his day. I have heard few public speakers who could 
sway and hold a great audience better than Senator Till- 
man. Wherever he went in the United States large as- 
semblages greeted him enthusiastically and applauded 
uproariously his bold, striking utterances. In the days of 
his health and vigor he was one of the most effective de- 
baters in the Senate. Well do I recall, when I was a Mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives, the frequent debates 
between Senator Tillman and Senator Spooner, which 
crowded the Chamber with Members of the House and 

[19] 



Memorial Audukssks: Sknatoh Tillman 

the galleries with interested spectators. During his long 
service in the Senate few of its Members engaged in more 
important debates than he — few participated in discuss- 
ing subjects of such large range and variety. He was 
well informed on all matters, ranging from the smallest 
to those of paramount importance. In discussing them 
he displayed accurate knowledge, logical and patriotic 
conclusions. 

Senator Tillman came to the United States Senate after 
he had had a most remarkable and successful career as 
governor of Iiis State. He had attained political suprem- 
acy in South Carolina only after fierce conflict and un- 
remitting combat. He had won at home by the strength 
of battle — not the art of diplomacy. His methods were 
those of the fighting warrior and not those of the negotiat- 
ing diplomat. This characterizes alike his political career 
in the Senate. He boldly proclaimed at all times his con- 
victions and conclusions, willing to stand or fall on their 
acceptance or rejection. He indulged in no equivocation, 
no evasion. He was bold, clear, and defiant, possessing 
the rare quality of complete intellectual integrity. He did 
not shirk going to the utmost limit dictated by his con- 
victions and conclusions. This rugged, sterling integrity 
obtained for him the full confidence of his people. How- 
ever much others may have differed with Senator Till- 
man, they knew he but gave utterance to his honest con- 
victions. This gave him strength and brought to him a 
following which no charm of eloquence or intellectual 
adroitness could ever obtain. Thus all through his po- 
litical life he builded on the solid foundation of courage 
and candor. Fear of consequences never made him fail 
to answer a roll call in the Senate. His integrity was such 
that when he made a mistake, and later realized it, he 
never sought refuge in evasion, but frankly and boldly 
confessed his error. 

[20] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 

His intellectual integrity was only equaled by his great 
moral integrity. Throughout his long political career no 
stain followed his footsteps — no scandal tarnished his 
fame. Any corrupt scheme that sought to covertly wind 
its way through the Senate ever encountered a most vigi- 
lant and "inveterate foe in Senator Tillman. Special privi- 
leges and favoritism always found in him a persistent 
enemy. His service to this country' in this respect was 
invaluable. 

His rugged, sterling honesty was one of Senator Till- 
man's most splendid qualities. Honesty is the greatest of 
virtues, around wliich all others cling; w-ithout it they 
wither and fall in dust and weeds. 

Mr. President, Senator Tillman's legislative achieve- 
ments were extensive and most useful to his country. He 
was a most industrious worker and legislator. He was 
constant in his attendance in the Senate, active and ener- 
getic as a committee worker. He was the recipient not 
many years ago of a striking indication of the very high 
regard and esteem in which he was held by his colleagues 
when legislation for the regulation of railroads was put 
under his control and management, although a majority 
of the Members of the Senate at that time were of opposite 
political faith. In the management of this measure he 
displayed parliamentary skill, eloquence, and great in- 
formation. 

His greatest work in the Senate was that which apper- 
tained to his duties as a member of the Committee on 
Naval Affairs, of which he was for some time chairman. 
He labored incessantly in committee and on the floor of 
the Senate to make the American Navy sufficiently large 
and efficient to discharge its responsibilities. His eff"orts 
were untiring in this direction. To the accomplishment 
of this task, which was so dear to his heart, he brought all 
his rugged strength and pertinacity. Having been closely , 

[21] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

associated with him in this work, ranking next to him on 
this committee, I desire to bear testimony to his usefulness 
and invaluable service. He aided most potentially in 
having the American Navy properly prepared, and thus 
made possible its achievements in the war with Germany. 
The country will ever owe him a large debt of gratitude 
for his work in this direction. When Senator Tillman 
died the American Navy lost a strong and powerful friend. 

Mr. President, my association with Senator Tillman was 
so close and intimate that I was not only cognizant of his 
splendid qualities as a public man but I was also fully 
aware of his excellence as a private individual. His pri- 
vate life was moral, clean, lovable, and honorable. He 
possessed in a preeminent degree strong moral character 
and integrity. He scorned duplicity and falsehood, loath- 
ing a lie. He fearlessly and scrupulously spoke the 
truth — sometimes almost brutally. I never knew a more 
tender, devoted husband; a kinder, better father. As a 
friend, he was steadfast and loyal. Like " Old Hickory " 
Jackson, his rugged character was knitted together by the 
strong fibers of friendship and fidelity. Of him it may 
be said, as was said of " Old Hickoi-y " Jackson, " He 
never failed a friend, never forgot a favor." 

Mr. President, in the death of Senator Tillman this 
country has sustained a great loss. In these trying hours 
our country needs strong, rugged characters like him, 
men whose broad and brave shoulders can securely bear 
national burdens. Our pressing need now is not beautiful 
and fragrant flowers, but old, gnarled oaks like Senator 
Tillman, to bear the present coming storm and stress. We 
do not now need eloquent and pleasing Ciceros to gloze 
over vice and evil and conceal dangers. We need fearless 
Catos, like Senator Tillman, to point out wrong, expose 
iniquity, and fearlessly meet dangers and difiiculties. 



[22] 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 

Mr. President : In 1876 the so-called " carpel-bag " and 
negro-rule government, which had come as a result of 
the close of the Civil War in South Carolina, was over- 
turned, and the political power in the State fell into the 
hands of the survivors of that political aristocracy which 
had been in power in the years preceding the Civil War. 
The men who thus came into power, many of them promi- 
nent Confederate ofTicers, continued in control of the 
political affairs of the State until 1890 — a period of 14 
years. 

In the meantime a spirit of restlessness had arisen 
among the middle classes, or the so-called " common 
people " of the State, against the rule of this old-time 
political aristocracy. This culminated in a movement 
among the farmers, who formed the farmer organization 
of the State. 

Senator Tillman became one of the leaders in this 
movement, and became a candidate for governor under 
the auspices and with the support of this farmer organiza- 
tion. It was a drastic and bitter campaign which ensued 
between the " old guard " and the " new guard " under the 
leadership of Tillman. He was the central figure and the 
moving spirit of the great political battle from which he 
emerged victorious at all points. 

This was followed by another drastic political campaign 
in 1892, in which Tillman was again a candidate for 
governor, and in which he was reelected after a very hot 
and exciting campaign. And finally in 1894 he was 
elected United States Senator after a bitter and spirited 
fight, defeating one of the prominent leaders of the old 
regime. 

[23] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

Tillman's victories in these campaigns were so com- 
plete that the elements which he and his followers van- 
quished have never since regained the power they had 
previously held. 

The administration of Tillman as governor was on 
the whole and in the main successful and progressive. 
He was instrmnental in hringing about many important 
reforms and improvements for the welfare of the State. 
While he was inclined to be somewhat domineering and 
drastic in his ways, yet on account of his honesty and 
sincerity and on account of the wisdom of his measures 
he was looked upon with favor and became popular 
among the great masses of the State, and that popularity 
he retained in full measure until the day of his death. 

While Senator Tillman had not had the advantages of 
a full college education, he had, nevertheless, been well 
trained in one of the academic schools of his State, where 
he was in attendance for upward of three years. But 
whatever deficiency there may have been in the training 
of the schools he more than made up in after life. He 
was a great reader and a great student, and he confined 
his readings and his studies largely to classical works of 
the highest order. He was a wonderful man in encrgj^ and 
perseverance, never at a standstill, always moving ahead, 
always seeking new worlds to conquer. 

Mr. President, it came to pass that he and I took the 
oath of office and entered the Senate on the same day — 
the 4th of March, 1895. We soon became intimate friends, 
and that friendship continued until the time of his death. 
While at first he seemed somewhat crusty and abrupt, yet 
I soon discovered that this was but the outer shell of a 
kind and generous heart and a vigorous and active mind. 
When he entered the Senate he was a veteran of many 
a liard-fought political battle, and this had developed in 
liini a belligerent attitude on many public (juestions, 

[24] 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 

which at times seemed to make him rather impatient of 
opposition. But, however this might be, everyone recog- 
nized his integrity and honesty of purpose, and no one 
could doubt his earnestness and sincerity'. As a rule, 
there was with liim no middle ground; a measure was to 
him either right or wrong, and hence he was most per- 
sistent and vigorous in his advocacy or in his opposition. 
When he was actively enlisted in a cause there was no 
truce; the battle must be vigorously fought to the end. 

I remember well the first great speech he made in the 
Senate. It seemed to me to come from a heart full of 
the evolutions in which he had taken part in his own 
State. There were many unique phrases and idioms in 
his speech which gave evidence of this, but on the whole 
his speech indicated to me that he was at heart sound and 
that he would zealously labor for the best interests of 
our common country. 

As the years went by he became a good, sound debater, 
more moderate in tone and more charitable to his op- 
ponents, and many of his earlj' idiosyncrasies disap- 
peared. He became a ready debater, and could take and 
give blows as effectively as any Senator in this body. His 
oratorj' was not of the glittering kind that dwelt in lofty 
and high-sounding periods, but rather of the kind that 
struck sledge-hammer blows at the heart of the question. 
He took no pains to sugar coat the points he made. Be- 
cause of his earnestness and sincerity, and because of 
his avoidance of all ornament, he became a most power- 
ful advocate or a most dangerous opponent. Above all 
things he believed in calling things by their right names, 
and if a scholarly name was not found he would evoke 
an idiom or phrase current among the people, but not 
always found in the books, which would oftentimes in its 
very peculiarity furnish a most potent argument. 



[25] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

Prior to the misfortune which befell him through a 
stroke of apoplexy he was one of the most energetic and 
hard-working Members of the Senate, participating in the 
debates on all important and leading questions. He took 
a leading part in securing the enactment of the amenda- 
tory interstate commerce act of 1906, which gave the 
Interstate Commerce Commission for the first time the 
rate-making power, a power that had been sought for, 
both by the commission and by the great mass of the 
people, for many years. I well remember the persistency 
with which he labored in this cause, and the helpful and 
effective work he did in that behalf. 

He was much sought for as a lecturer, in the Northern 
States especially, on account of his ultra views on the 
so-called " race question." His discussion of this ques- 
tion was always illuminating and instructive; and while 
his audiences may not always have agreed with his views, 
yet he always secured a large attendance of good listeners, 
who, to say the least, were interested in hearing his views 
on his side of the case. 

He was always kind and considerate toward his fellow 
Senators, and on his lecture tours, if the occasion arose, 
he would always say a good word for his colleagues, 
whether they belonged to his party or not. 

He was emphatically, in the true sense of the word, a 
progressive — a progressive in the sense that, although the 
old may have proved satisfactory, yet if anything new. 
developed which he found to be better, he was ready and 
swift to seize upon it. 

He was in all things loyal and faithful to the interests 
and welfare of his State and to the interests and welfare 
of our common country. He had no patience with shams 
nor with glittering generalities, and in his debates he gave 
no mercy to either. 

[26] 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 

South Carolina has been represented by many able, 
cultured, and highly educated men in this body, men who 
commanded attention here and elsewhere; and while 
Senator Tillman may not have had the culture or the 
gifts of oratory of some of his predecessors, yet I doubt 
whether any of them rendered more effective and bene- 
ficial service in this vineyard of the people to his State 
and to our common countrj' than did he. 

He was an active dynamo in the moral and intellectual 
world, that gave ample evidence of a brave heart and a 
strong soul — tireless in the performance of his duties. A 
Senate composed of such men as Tillman would never 
go far astray and would always be apt to listen to the 
demands of the people for necessarj' constructive and 
remedial legislation. 

Had he lived he would, no doubt, have been returned 
to the Senate by practically a unnanimous vote of the 
people of his State, but the fates willed otherwise. And 
while he is with us no more, the public spirit which he 
infused into the political, social, and economic life of his 
State still survives, and his memory will be cherished for 
years to come as one of the most beloved sons of South 
Carolina. 



[27] 



Address of Mr. Lewis, of Ilunois 

Mr. President: Among those whose fortune it is to con- 
tribute a word upon this sublime as well as solemn occa- 
sion, to me is given the privilege of expressing a heart's 
feeling, a thought. 

These proceedings, Mr. President, are designated as 
obituaries. The general mankind, reading of them in the 
public press, is inclined to the idea that they are a mere 
formal proceeding, established by custom, and observed 
merely that we might comply with some senatorial cour- 
tesy. Others feel, Mr. President, that they are something 
like a surcease of the political quarrels of the past, and are 
in the form of a universal forgiveness, while we robe the 
dead with the consideration we declined them while they 
live. Partisan conflicts are believed to have been so bitter 
in this Chamber that time never heals their wounds, nor 
any personal gift of the combatant or charm of manner 
ameliorates the asperities exhibited in the combat. 

Too many assume that these proceedings but envelop 
with a glow the closing chapter of some life which before 
partisanship had shrouded in gloom. It is not true. It is 
regretful that the public should have an estimate of that 
nature. There is no rule of this body which calls upon a 
Senator to pay respects to a dead comrade. There is no 
obligation upon him other than that which applies from 
man to man in any avenue of life. Utterances as will be 
embalmed, sir, in a volume kept as a monument of mem- 
ory of the deceased are volunteer expressions of admira- 
tion and heartfelt praise. We must note the tributes from 
such men as these two distinguished leaders of one of the 
great parties of our Nation — one from the East, in the 
classic scholar, Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts; one from 
[28] 



Address of Mr. Lewis, of Illinois 



the West, in the great, strong, sturdy nature of Nelson, of 
Minnesota. Sir, these are not born out of courtesy, nor do 
they spring out of mere observance of custom. They were 
the overflowings of a heart that had become convinced by 
close association of the merit of the man. They were in- 
spired by that impulse of justice which speaks out here 
to voice the sentiment to all now living who knew the dead 
Tillman as the living statesman that they may know how 
thus his rivals in politics, his opponents in conflict, and 
more, sir, oftentimes his enemies in party warfare, remem- 
ber him and appraise him as a man. 

I have often thought, Mr. President, that when contribu- 
tions have come, such as from distinguished gentlemen of 
our side — called democratic — toward Democrats, they 
would be accepted only as a tribute of party associates and 
regarded as a favor that was due one to whom the party 
associations have for a while been tender and fraternal. 
It is not known to the public that even among ourselves 
very serious differences often exist as to ways and means 
and as to methods and objects. Likewise, sir, among us 
the contribution or tribute is never tendered from mere 
favor or form. It is only spoken because of that convic- 
tion of truth, that sense of desert, that solemn justice we 
owe that deserving man, whoever he is. 

Mr. President, if it were in my power I would abolish our 
prevailing method of giving obituary — delaying the tribute 
until legislation assignments afford a convenient time. I 
would invoke in this body that other rule prescribing that 
when the solemn announcement of the death of a comrade 
came to us, and there were those disposed to speak of his 
qualities and deserts, I would have that duty discharged 
then. I would not have it so lapse that the memorj' of him 
would be dimmed by after events, and those who had 
known him intimately deprived of the word that could be 
spoken by those of close familiarity and fresh memory. 
[29] 



Memorial Aodkesses: Senator Tillman 

Yet, after all, I am inclined, sir, as I speak, to another 
thought. This lapse of time must impress the public with 
the sincerity of these utterances. Manj' events have hap- 
pened since this distinguished man was laid to rest among 
his friends. Swirling clouds of war flashed with fire, por- 
tions of the earth ripped apart, kings toppled, monarchs 
crushed, while dynasties have passed into the aftermath, 
to be remembered as a thing to be despised or to be 
mourned. Only a strong man, Mr. President, who had im- 
pressed his personality upon the soul of man, could have 
been remembered during such times as these and could 
have invoked from men the expression so firm in praise 
and so strong in love as that which has come from these 
who have spoken to-day of this one man — Tillman. 

Only great merits of such a man carved in deeds upon 
the hearts of his fellows could have been reflected after 
such events. The ordinary man, to whom a tribute out 
of courtesy would have been given, would have been for- 
gotten in such an hour. It is only a great star shining 
among planets whose light could illume through such 
darkness amid which we have lived. Only the attributes 
of the great, sir, could have remained to reflect their glory 
upon mankind in such scenes as those which amid fire 
and death and universal carnage still survive. If the time 
has lapsed — which I deplore — from custom, it is to be said 
that in this particular instance it has served as a test of 
this man's great deserts. It must now be certified that 
amid it all and through it all he -still could remain an ever- 
gleaming light, pouring radiance about the hearts of his 
friends and reflecting in steady flame the character of this 
dead master. It must ever live as a beacon to guide the 
children of the State he honored with his sublime service. 

Sir, Senator Tillman was, as these distinguished Sen- 
ators have said, but a plain man. Yet what greater men 
have we among greatness than those who are plain men? 
[30] 



Address of Mr. Lewis, of Illinois 



We recall for the moment the lines that Tennyson trans- 
lated from the heart of that returning statesman, who 
from an humble farmer to premier found himself in his 
boyhood village. After a career of greatness in public 
life, he stands where once he followed a plowshare. He 
looks about him, and musing: 

Dost thou look back on what hath been, 

As some divinely gifted man, 
Whose life in low estate began 

And on simple village green. 
Who breaks his birth's invidious bar. 

And grasps the skirts of happy chance. 
And breasts the blows of circumstance 

To grapple with his evil star. 

Ah, behold ! That is the " pillar of a people's hope " and 
the " center of a world's desire." 

Sir, what was the object of this man, Ben Tillman, citi- 
zen of the United States? Mr. President, my mother's 
family was from the State of South Carolina. They were 
the Hamiltons — I am carrying their name. The mere sug- 
gestion indicates to you, sir, that 1 was necessarily in- 
terested in the State from the earliest time of my life and 
that I must ever be interested in the affairs of its men. I 
left the South very early and found my home in the West, 
and have remained a western man. I entered the House 
of Representatives in 1897, and had the delight to serve 
with such comrades as I see sitting about me — the eminent 
Senator, now chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, 
succeeding Senator Tillman, Mr. Swanson of Virginia, 
whose public service has been shown in so many char- 
acters and in so many high places of civilization; and the 
distinguished Senator from Colorado, Mr. Shafroth, whose 
contribution in all things to the welfare of his country is 
praised by those who know him. I can recall that it was 
one of our occupations, when we were not busy in the 
[31] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

House, to come over to the Senate when we heard that 
Tillman of South Carolina was to engage in some debate 
or conflict. As the Senator from Massachusetts and the 
Senator from Minnesota have well said, he attracted at- 
tention from the mere fact that he was to speak. 

Mr. President, let me say, sir, on this solemn occasion, 
yet, sir, with all the deliberation it commands, it was not 
so important in those daj's as to how he said that which 
he did; it mattered not in what words these phrases 
should be graced; nor particularly', sir, does it dwell now 
upon the mind of man as to whether they disclosed college 
education, the finish of literarj' adornment, or the perfec- 
tion of phraseology. It was that the man felt justice; it 
was that his constant struggle in life was to do that justice 
to man; it was that the verj' soul within him surged and 
beat to the single purpose of having justice done by his 
Government, aye, to its humblest citizen, and for this, to 
this, and through this he spoke. 

Mr. President, I have lived through two epochs in this 
Government when to my mind — reflecting the lessons 
which the page of historj' gave me — there was suggested 
time and time again how near my country- was on the 
verge of a civil revolution. One of those, sir, was in the 
years when I first came into congressional public life, fol- 
lowing 1896 — in the year 1897. It. was at the end, sir, of 
what was called a Democratic administration. Without 
regard to what might be said to be the right or wrong 
of measures which were then in force, or, sir, of the poli- 
cies which were then invoked, it is sufficient to recall for 
a moment that there was a public mind throughout the 
land which, because of financial distresses and not under- 
standing the causes that brought them forth, was on 
the eve of overturning all of the fixed institutions of our 
fabric, and would have been content to do so in any form 
that should have presented itself to their successful under- 
[32] 



Address of Mr. Lewis, of Illinois 



taking. Do 'you realize. Senators, that but for such men 
as Ben Tillman, who was understood to represent the 
humble people, to speak for the great rights of civilization, 
to speak for that great mass of mankind who find them- 
selves squirming beneath the feet of masters — that but for 
such as he, in whom that order had confidence and felt 
he was for them — this land of ours never could have 
escaped the fate that has followed all other lands under 
similar circumstances since history threw its light on civil- 
ization — revolution ? 

It was the manner of such a man, the expressions of 
such a man, the purpose of such a man and of his kind 
wherever they were, sir, which saved the Republic of the 
United States and held it firm to the center of its purpose — 
a peaceful government of the people, by the voice of the 
people. He therefore, sir, contributed a great service to 
the Republic. Without being conscious of it, and per- 
chance without having it in his purpose, he was one of the 
few who cemented our country' again together when it 
was about to part like a ship in the mad waves of a venge- 
ful sea. 

When men shall come to consider such a man, maj' we 
not recall the atmosphere in which he lived, the time in 
which he spoke, the conditions he met, the remedies he 
offered, and the result of his contributions? By these 
may he not be measured? And since the tendency of us 
all is to look to smaller things in human life and by this 
diminish the real measure of greatness in the altogether, 
we may appeal to future historj', and shall consider this 
great truth, to recall what was the results and the sure 
effect of such a life as he lived, such offerings as he gave, 
such services as he brought to his land in such an hour as 
they were given. 

Mr. President, there was another period which fell to 
the peril of insurrection with what was called Republican 
115070°— 19 3 [33] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

administration. This was in the fall of 1912. It began 
in the spring of 1912, following the year 1911, culminating 
in a spirit in this land of a political upheaval partaking 
of resentment against party arrangement and party organ- 
ization and against every form of established governm^ent 
Had there not been strong men on all sides to come forth 
at such a time and point out where the real evil was and 
how It could be remedied by the people themselves there 
would have been a revolution in America. There was a 
spirit in the land that cared nothing for ancient institu- 
tions, that knew neither the fathers of the past nor recked 
of their glory. Sir, tliis and other reasons similar to that 
in effect which followed immediately what was known as 
the Cleveland administration, produced a situation that 
promised to overturn the courts on one hand, to dispense 
with all our forms of legislation throughout, and end in 
the wreck and ruin of our form of civilization. 

One can only conjecture what might have followed had 
It not been for the course of honest, faithful, strong- 
hearted men, who arose and spoke the truth without fear 
placed the evil where it belonged, and registered responsi- 
bility at its just place and announced the real remedy for 
the wrong endured. Tillman was one. Here in this 
Chamber his voice could be heard long after the expira- 
tion of 1896. Twenty years of public life had not changed 
his creed or modified the sincere, patriotic eflfort he made 
for mankind. He was one of its legislative saviors 

Senators have said, and rightfully, that men serving 
on this floor with each other become mollified; that they 
become softened; that the spirit of attack vanishes; that 
party contest wanes. One stands like a vestal near the 
altar, with the swinging incense of friendship perfuming 
every conflict. But, sir, however true that may be, and 
doubUess is-and long may it continue-still, sir as to 
this man neither fear of men nor partisanship of politics 
[341 



Ai)i)iii:ss oi- Mit. Li;uis. or Illinois 



nor favor from liis own nor aflections of home ever moved 
him from his conviction. 

Nor, sir, did the beckon of riches or the opportunity 
of fortune seduce him from his firm sense of right. When 
he began his undertaking for men he remained true to 
the end. It was because of the confidence of the multi- 
tude in such men, in whom they beheld the rock around 
which the vine might entwine in beauty yet remain fixed 
in unshaken strength. Truly, sir. his voice and cliaracter 
was the rock of our salvation. When wc reflect upon this 
we can but slightly measure the service such a man does 
a countn,- such as tiurs founded upon the will of the peo- 
ple and only abiding so long as the people have faith in 
the honesty of men. 

Senators have referred to the last days of this distin- 
guished statesman. Mr. President, in civil government 
his decree was justice to men, in war the duty of patriots. 
From neither did he ever veer. His eye was fixed to sec 
through the long distance the great danger that was upon 
us in a later hour. He did not parley with it; he did not 
compromise with it nor smotlier its expression from fear 
in any quarter. His was again the lifted ax, that he might 
smile tlie head of the foe when raised to endanger his 
countrv'. 

Tiic Senator from Virginia [Mr. Swanson] well spoke 
of Senator Tillman's efTorts in behalf of the Navy. The 
distinguished head of the Na\7, the Sccretarj- of the Navy, 
Hon. Josephus Daniels, who bore the great burden in 
such hour, is here sitting with us. He found no aid 
greater, none stronger. Truly tlierc were none more 
patriotic and none more sure nor more uncompromising 
in his championship than this chairman of the Naval 
Committee. 

Mr. President, I know the South. It was not easy for 
Ben Tillman in time of peace to stand here in support 
[35] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

of a large Xavy. He came from a State whose people 
were carefully considerate, among whom were few mil- 
lionaires. The rich were the exception. They were by 
nature and from a Commonwealth of past conviction 
inclined to resent on the part of their public servant 
unnecessary appropriations that would bring large taxes 
and heavy burdens upon their people and their earnings. 
No one knew this more than Tu.lman. He knew this 
necessarily attracted about himself a possible political 
opposition from which he might have to pay that penalty 
which public men pay for outrunning their constituents 
and guiding instead of following them. 

But, nevertheless, sir, he did not make measure of that 
event. The duty of his whole country was the sole stand- 
ard to him. He was willing to trust the intelligence of 
South Carolina. He knew her humble people as he did 
her superior people. He knew that if he were to go to 
them with the truth, it would be the truth that would 
not only make them free but save him from any injustice. 
It was that feature of independence in politics that char- 
acterized him, so different from any men around him, and 
which justify on this day these tributes of praise which 
are so willingly and sweetly rendered by these his com- 
rades who were a generation and more in public life with 
him. 

Mr. President, I knew him as a friend. I did not hesi- 
tate to go to him for counsel. To him I had no pride 
in confessing blunders, which of course in all men's 
lives are many. I never knew a man to whom I could go 
with greater hope for consolation and for a sure sense 
of guardianship than to this man Tillman. It is because 
of this that I recall it. My sense of obligations is but 
different from that of his other dear comrades. I knew 
him as a friend, and as such I mourn him and miss him. 



[36] 



Address of Mr. Lewis, of Illinois 



But, Mr. President, there was one thought which I can 
not omit. Those who knew him closely would ever be 
impressed with his Christianity. There was about Till- 
man a sense of responsibility to God and Heaven to which 
he felt he would some day make his last return. Sir, 
whatever else might have been, when that time came 
there would be nothing for him to seek to hide. There 
would be nothing which he need seek excuse from his 
fellow mankind. His religion was to him consoling, ever 
guiding and ever inspiring him. His religion was faith 
in God, his belief the teachings of Christ, his creed love 
for his fellow mankind. 

That is, sir, what sustained him through those days of ill- 
ness which distinguished Senators have alluded to. It con- 
soled him in such hour, as he was, by his affectionate and 
tender wife, nursed to reviving hope. She never tired. 
His children never wearied in their service for him. He 
clung to life as a duty to them. Many times we have seen 
him here when we knew his oppressed physical condition 
would not justify it; yet out of duty to those around him, at 
the sacrifice of physical comfort, he would ever be with us 
in the discharge of the duty he owed to God and to coun- 
try. Where will we find in after days a nobler example 
for men to pattern by than such a character? 

Mr. President, South Carolina has contributed many 
great men to the world of circumstance in America. She 
has inscribed in perpetual histoi'y such memorial as time 
affords to the names of great heroes and wondrous states- 
men familiar to us. We recall them easily. John C. Cal- 
houn was a master of sophistry, a philosopher of govern- 
ment — in the science of it as it is written. Hammond was 
distinguished by reason of something of the insistence on 
that class distinction which prevailed too long in the South 
and to her great injury. Butler, the example of noblesse 



[37] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

oblige. In his personality he ever commanded respect and 
admiration. Hampton personified the valor of the soldier 
and the character of those who gave much of life for 
what they believed and could not understand the differ- 
ence of another as against them or as neglectful of all their 
people's sacrifice. 

But in Tillman there was the philosopher of govern- 
ment — that government that meant justice to all men 
equally wherever possible under the law. There was the 
courtly gentleman who knew not how to swerve from duty, 
with the courage of the soldier; a courage which never 
shrank in an undertaking that meant the preservation of 
the country and the maintenance of its honor. He passed 
through all the stages represented by all others and in 
himself personified their virtues. In these days of great 
victories where they have been garnered by other men 
with every opportunity of favor or partiality, Benjamin 
R. Tillman leaves in his life and memory a monument of 
achievement over all obstacles to which after generations 
his State will point with pride and glory. His memory 
will live as an influence which will inspire its citizenship 
to noble efforts, and strike to their lips a chorus of praise 
in the coming day and in af tertime, when our whole world 
shall know the new regeneration of this, our Republic. 
Those who knew him will praise God that our time could 
produce such a man as Benjamin R. Tillman. 



[38] 



Address of Mr. Pollock, of South Carolina 

Mr. President: In all ages and amongst all civilized 
peoples it has been an honored custom for the living to 
pay tribute to the dead, and so to-day we are met here in 
response to that custom to pay a meed of tribute to the 
memorj' of the distinguished Senator from South Caro- 
lina, whose seat I now have tlie honor to occupy. 

The first ballot that it was ever my privilege, as a citizen 
of South Carolina, to cast for governor of my State was 
cast for Benjamin Ryan Tillman in 1892. The first ballot 
tliat it was ever my privilege, as a member of the General 
Assembly of South Carolina, to cast for United States 
Senator from my State was cast for the distinguished 
American Senator to whose memory we would to-day pay 
tribute. 

Occupying the same scat that ho so well and ably filled 
for nearly 24 years, succeeding him for a short time by 
the suffrage of the same people whom he loved so well, 
called upon by the people of South Carolina — his peo- 
ple and mine — to complete the service which they had 
intrusted to him, I must confess to a deep sense of my 
inability to pay full tribute to him as well as confess to 
my inability to render a service in this body comparable 
with the great record which he made for himself, his 
State, and his countrj', which has placed him in the front 
rank of not only the greatest of Carolina statesmen, but 
also amongst the greatest statesmen that our whole 
country has produced in its nearly 150 years of national 
existence. 

The life and career of Senator Tillman should be an 
inspiration to the young manhood of America which has 
[39] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

not had a full chance in the race of life. Coming on the 
scene of action immediately after the great Civil War, 
when his State was prostrate, his people poor, his oppor- 
tunities circumscribed, without means and without edu- 
cational facilities, he was compelled to work by day and 
study by night. He soon realized that the poor man with- 
out education fought an unequal fight, and he undertook 
to educate himself by study and reading whenever time 
permitted. Denied the education of a college, he turned 
to the university of hard knocks and hard work, and for 
many years he toiled to support his father's family and 
to store up knowledge of men and affairs. Living and 
making a living on a poor farm in South Carolina, under 
most adverse circumstances, he realized the hard lot of 
the poor and unfortunate, and it seems to me that then 
it was he must have read the words of Charles Dickens: 

If ever household affections and loves are graceful things, they 
are graceful in the poor. The ties that bind the wealthy and the 
proud to home may be forged on earth, but those wliich linli the 
poor man to his humble hearth are of the truer metal and bear 
the stamp of Heaven. The man of high descent may love the 
halls and lands of his inheritance as a part of himself, as trophies 
of his birth and power; his associations with them arc associa- 
tions of pride and wealth and triumph; the poor man's attach- 
ment to the tenements he holds, which strangers have held before 
and may to-morrow occupy again, has a worthier root, struck 
deep into purer soil. His household goods are of flesh and blood, 
with no alloy of silver, gold, or precious stone; he has no prop- 
erty but in the affections of his own heart; and when they endear 
bare floors and walls, despite of rags and toil and scanty fare, 
that man has his love of home from God, and his rude hut be- 
comes a solemn place. 

His love of home, of wife, of children — his beautiful 
home life that he learned to live while he was yet poor 
and obscure — is evidence that the great novelist knew the 
real human heart, and it seems to me that in his early life 

[40] 



Address of Mr. Pollock, of South Carolina 

our lamented friend must have breathed the same spirit 
that the same author expressed when he said : 

Oh! if those who rule the destinies of nations would but re- 
member this— if they would but think how hard it is for the 
very poor to have engendered in their hearts that love of home 
from which all domestic virtues spring, when they live in dense 
and squalid masses where social decency is lost, or rather, never 
found — if they would but turn aside from the wide thorough- 
fares and great houses and strive to improve the wretched 
dwellings in byways where only poverty may walk — many low 
roofs would point more truly to the sky than the loftiest steeple 
that now rears proudly up from the midst of guilt and crime and 
horrible disease to mock them by its contrast. 

With such an inspiration Benjamin R. Tillman must 
have been filled when he went out from his humble home 
and obscure place to lead the ignorant and the poor out 
into the bright light and clear sunshine of equal oppor- 
tunity and freedom, and commenced to teach them anew 
the truth that Jefferson had written in the immortal 
Declaration of Independence, " That all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain unalienable rights; that amongst these are life, lib- 
ertj% and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these, 
governments are instituted amongst men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." 

With this in mind he must have carried on his memo- 
rable campaign of education amongst the masses of the 
people of South Carolina and taught them how to vote in 
order that they might conduct their government in the 
interest of the whole people. About 1885 Mr. Tillman 
commenced a crusade, first through the press and later 
from the platform, to secure for the impoverished people 
of South Carolina better conditions of living. 

The first speech that he ever delivered in public, in so 

far as I know, was delivered at Bennettsville, S. C, in the 

summer of 1885, and I well remember as a boy of 15 years 

[41] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

of age hearing that speech in company with my father. 
Mr. Tillman was unused to pubhc speech and had a pre- 
pared speech to read, but he had not proceeded far in a 
most awkward reading of it when he became disgusted 
with the attempt and threw his manuscript aside and 
launched out hesitatingly in the delivery of an extem- 
poraneous speech which soon gained impetus and carried 
his audience with him. I shall never forget the expression 
of my father as we left the courthouse when he so well 
expressed my own youthful sentiments : " That man is a 
diamond in the rough," and so he aftei-wards demon- 
strated, but as time passed on the rough diamond was 
polished and smoothed and became the brightest jewel 
in the political crown of South Carolina, and one of the 
most brilliant stars in the American Nation. 

The masses of the people had taken but little part in 
the political affairs of the State; he educated them to a 
realization of their rights and obligations. They had but 
poor educational advantages; he educated them to the 
idea that they were entitled to an education at the hands 
of the public. They had no college for the farmers' boys 
where they could educate the future farmers of the State; 
he builded Clemson College. They had no college for the 
young women of the State, and he caused Winthrop Col- 
lege for women to be builded. Each of these institutions 
now enrolls more than 1,000 students, and they stand as 
perpetual monuments to Gov. B. R. Tillman. Tens of 
thousands of young men and young women have received 
an education at these institutions which otherwise they 
could not have received, and their lives of usefulness are 
living pages in the book of life of Gov. Tillman. 

He builded up the common schools, and so improved 
them that now a school is in the reach of practically every 
boy and girl within the State, as adequate, possibly, as 
the average State can afford. 
[42] 



Address of Mr. Pollock, of South Carolina 

He caused a better system of analysis and inspection of 
fertilizers, and so prevented the practice of mammoth 
frauds on the farmers of the State. 

He contributed largely to the adoption of the primary 
election system of nominating all officials, and thereby 
gave equal rights and privileges to all. He caused a con- 
stitutional convention to be held, and it adopted a con- 
stitution which greatly improved the organic law of the 
State and preserved for the time being the Anglo-Saxon 
civilization of the State. He grappled with the liquor 
evil, as then exercised through open barrooms, and realiz- 
ing the necessity for the backing of public opinion, which 
was then not ripe for prohibition, instituted the system 
of State owned and controlled dispensaries, which sub- 
sequently became corrupt, but which paved the way for 
abolition of the whisky traffic in South Carolina. 

All these things were accomplished only after the hard- 
est and bilfercsl of political conflicts — bitter because he 
was bitterly opposed and criticized; hard because the 
opposition to Mr. Tillman was led by many of the best 
and brainiest men in the State who had controlled its poli- 
cies and destinies and who could not see that a new day 
had dawned in the State. 

In 1890 a preliminai-y convention of the representatives 
of the reform faction of the Democratic Party, headed by 
Mr. Tillman, was held in March, and this convention 
nominated a full State ticket, with Mr. Tillman as its can- 
didate for governor, to be run for the regular Democratic 
nomination, and provided for a joint debate at each 
county seat between the candidates so put forward and 
any other candidates that might offer. Some of the most 
brilliant men in South Carolina joined issue with Mr. 
Tillman in the campaign, but his brilliant intellect, his 
keen wit, his ready retort, and his great learning were 
equal to every demand, and he carried the election with 
[43] 



Memorial Audkesses: Senator Tillman 

a ti-emendous majority and received the Democratic nomi- 
nation. Bitter attacks were made on him, and this bitter- 
ness brouglit forth bitterness in return; but when the 
campaign was over lie was ready to say, as Grant said 
after Appomattox, " Let us have peace." But not so. The 
opposition put out an independent candidate against him, 
but he was elected by an overwhelming majority, carry- 
ing every county in the State. He has since had the oppor- 
tunity to pay a remarkable tribute to his competitor for 
the Democratic nomination in his first race for gov- 
ernor, the Hon. Joseph H. Earle, who was subsequently 
his colleague in the Senate for a short time, and this 
tribute paid on the floor of the Senate shows that Mr. 
Tillman could fight a good fight, a hard fight, a bitter fight 
with a worthy antagonist and yet retain the respect of 
that man and at the same time retain a high regard for 
the virtues of an honorable antagonist, and such his an- 
tagonist was in 1890. 

In 1892 he was a candidate for reelection as governor of 
South Carolina, and he was opposed in the primaries by 
that brilliant orator and courtly gentleman, ex-Gov. John 
C. Sheppard; and again Mr. Tillman had an antagonist 
worthy of the best, but so strongly was he intrenched in 
the hearts of the great masses of the jjeople that he was 
reelected governor of his State for another term, during 
which he retained his wonderful hold on the regard and 
affections of his people, so that at the expiration of his 
second term as governor he was able, after a memorable 
campaign, to defeat the gallant Matthew Calbraith Butler, 
who had so well and so long served his State in peace and 
in war; and thus began his great senatorial career. 

I shall not dwell at length on the record made by Sen- 
ator Tillman in this body. Many of you who served with 
him know that record more intimately than I do. Some 
of j'ou remember the inexperienced legislator who came 
here with his pitchfork. You saw him in action, you 
[44] 



Address of Mr. Pollock, of South Carolina 

heard him in debate, you counseled with liim in confer- 
ence, and you had the opportunity of learning the mas- 
siveness of liis intellect, the bigness of his heart, liis desire 
to serve his party, his State, and his Nation. 

When others left the Democratic Party, believing that 
the interests of the people could be better served through 
the Populist Party, he kept his followers within the Dem- 
ocratic Party and tried to make that party more truly rep- 
resentative of the masses of the people; where evils had 
crept into his own party he did not hesitate to point them 
out and seek to correct them. When the Republican 
Party was in power he did not hesitate to join issue with 
them in any matter that did not comport with Ms sense of 
civic righteousness, and some of his speeches on the great 
political problems of the past quarter of a century will 
go down in history as classics of the period. His tights 
against special privilege, his demand for a greater and 
more elastic currency, his opposition to the exorbitant 
prices charged for steel plate for battlesMps, his struggles 
against harmful monopolies — all these are matters of his- 
tory and can not be overlooked by the future student of 
American history; but possibly the greatest service that 
it was Ills fortune to render the American people was in 
the upbuilding of the American Navy while he was a 
member of and chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, 
and the last official act of the distinguished Senator, the 
last signature that he ever placed to any document, was 
his signature to the conference report on the part of the 
Senate to the greatest naval bill that ever passed the 
American Congress. Under Ms chairmanship of the 
Senate Committee on Naval Affairs the American Navy 
was so increased and builded up that it now stands second 
only to that of Great Britain, and that Navy, with the as- 
sistance of those of our allies, made it possible for Amer- 
ica to send across the ocean more than 2,000,000 of Amer- 
ican soldiers to join with the other legions of liberty in 
[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

the great war of democracy and freedom of the world 
without the loss of a single American transport. Under 
his leadership great navy yards were built and improved 
in all parts of the country where needed, and the one on 
the coast of his own State will always be linked with his 
name and remain a monument to his memory. 

He loved his fellow man, he loved freedom, he loved 
liberty; and when the civilization of mankind was at 
stake, when the freedom and liberty of the world was 
threatened, when oppressed people were crying out for 
assistance, when American rights were disregarded and 
invaded, when the American flag was insulted, he declared 
that these conditions were intolerable and that he would 
vote for a declaration of war against Germany whenever 
the opportunity presented, and he lived to see his country 
and yours take its proper place in the affairs of the world, 
but alas ! the grim reaper carried him over yonder before 
it was given to him to see the glorious emblem of liberty 
and freedom floating over the victorious troops of free 
America on the fields of France. 

He played his part like a man, he fought his battles like 
a soldier, he died in the service of his country, as he wished 
to do, and his State and his country are the better for that 
he lived. He is gone but not forgotten. The memory of 
his service and achievement will linger long after all of 
those who knew him, who loved him, and respected liim, 
shall have joined that great invisible host in the eternal 
over yonder. 

Mr. President, as a further mark of respect to the mem- 
ory of the late distinguished Senator from South Carolina, 
Hon. Benjamin R. Tillman, I move that the Senate stand 
in recess until to-morrow at 12 o'clock noon. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 12 

o'clock and 30 minutes p. m.) the Senate took a recess 

' until to-morrow, Monday, December 16, 1918, at 12 o'clock 

meridian. 

[46] 



Proceedings in the House of Representatives 

Wednesday, July 3, WIS. 
The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Coudcn, D. D., offered the 
following prayer: 

Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee that amid the ter- 
rible conditions which confront us, and which have di- 
vided the world into two hostile camps, on the one hand 
to uphold and sustain liberty and justice, on the other to 
beat down liberty and justice and bring mankind under 
the brutal forces of those who would destroy the most 
sacred rights of men, that religion liveS among the entente 
powers and is taking a deeper, firmer hold on the hearts of 
men. 

The cry is, "What of God? Is He indeed the Father of 
mankind or a King ruling with the scepter of might liis 
subjects? 

We thank Thee that the old conceptions of God, creeds, 
dogmas, which have divided men into innumerable sects, 
are passing away, giving place to the essentials — God, 
right, justice, mercy, love, the immortality of the soul, the 
eternal verities, disclosed by the Master on the Hill of 
Calvary. 

Our hearts go out in sympathy this morning to the col- 
leagues, friends, and those who are dear and near to the 
veteran Senator who has done a great work for his State 
and for his Nation and has passed on to the glories which 
awaitvthe faithful. Amen. 



[47] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 



MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. 

A message from the Senate, by Mr. Waldorf, its enroll- 
ing clerk, announced that the Senate had passed the fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

Senate resolution 273. 

Resolved, Tliat the Senate has heard with profound sorrow the 
announcement of the death of the Hon. Benjamin Ryan Till- 
man, Lite a Senator from the State of South Carohna. 

Resolved, That a committee of 12 Senators be appointed by the 
Vice President to take order for superintending the funeral of 
Mr. Tillman, to be held in the city of Trenton, S. C. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 

Mr. Lever. Mr. Speaker, I present the following resolu- 
tions. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Benjamin R. Tillman, a Senator of the 
United States from the State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased 
Senator. 

Resolved, That a committee of 18 Members be appointed on the 
part of the House to join with the committee appointed on the 
part of the Senate to attend the funeral. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 

The Chair announced the following committee: Mr. 
Lever; Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina; Mr. Ragsdale; Mr. 
Whaley; Mr. NichoUs, of South Carolina; Mr. Dominick; 
Mr. Stevenson; Mr. Padgett; Mr. Vinson; Mr. Butler; Mr. 
Cannon; Mr. Walsh; Mr. Fess; Mr. Elliott; Mr. Morgan; 
Mr. Langley; Mr. Williams; Mr. Austin; and Mr. French. 



[48] 



Proceedings in the House of Representatives 



The Clerk road as follows: 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the House do now 
adjourn. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the reso- 
lution. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to; accordingly 
(at 1 o'clock and 7 minutes p. m.) the House adjourned 
until to-morrow, Thursday, July 4, 1918, at 12 o'clock 



Saturday, December 7, 1918. 

Mr. Byrnes of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker 

The Speaker. For what purpose does the gentleman 
from South Carolina rise? 

Mr. Byrnes of South Carolina. I desire to ask unani- 
mous consent that a session of the House be held on 
Sunday, December 15, in order that eulogies may be 
delivered upon the life, character, and public services of 
the late Senator Tillman, the session beginning at 12 
o'clock. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. 
Byrnes] asks unanimous consent that on Sundaj% the 15th 
of December, there shall be a session of the House, begin- 
ning at 12 o'clock, for the purpose of memorializing 
Senator Tillman. Is there objection? [After a pause.] 
The Chair hears none. 

Mr. Byrnes of South Carolina. I ask leave of absence 
for my colleague, Mr. Lever, on account of a death in his 
family. 

The Speaker. The Chair designates Mr. Lever, of South 

Carolina, to preside that day and wishes that he may be 

so notified. The gentleman also asks leave of absence 

for 10 days for his colleague, Mr. Lever, on account of 

115070°— 19 i [49] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

death in his family. Is there objection? [After a pause.] 
The Chair hears none. 

Saturday, December U, 1918. 

The Speaker. At the memorial service for Senator 
Tillman to-morrow the Chair appoints the gentleman 
from South Carolina [Mr. Lever] to act as Speaker pro 
tempore. 

Sunday, December 15, 1918. 

The House met at 12 o'clock noon, and was called to 
order by Mr. Lever as Speaker pro tempore. 

Rev. F. Ward Denys, of Washington, D. C, offered the 
following prayer: 

Almighty God, Father of all who have gone, to whom 
we come at this time in solemn consciousness that we our- 
selves must all sooner or later enter the realm of the ever- 
lasting, we invoke Thy divine guidance on this occasion, 
that this memorial may be a fitting expression of that 
which concerns the one who has gone into the realm 
which we all must enter, and that that which is said of 
him may become an imperishable evidence of the services 
that he, as a faithful servant of his Master and of his 
country, rendered in these Halls prior to his going to the 
halls of lasting glory. These and all things we ask in the 
name of Him who is the author and soul of all that is 
good and true and beautiful. Amen. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The Clerk will report the 
special order for to-day. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

On motion of Mr. Byrnes of South Carolina, by unanimous 
consent. 

Ordered, That Sunday, December 15, 1918, at 12 o'clock noon, 
be set apart for addresses upon the life, character, and public 
services of Hon. Brnjamin Ryan Tillman, late a Senator from 
the State of South Carolina. 

[50] 



Proceedings in the House of Representatives 

Mr. Stevenson. Mr. Speaker, I offer the following reso- 
lution. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman from South 
Carolina offers a resolution which the Clerk will report. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended, 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of 
Hon. Benjamin Ryan Tillman, late a Senator of the United 
States from the State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased, and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career, the House, at the conclusion of these exercises, shall stand 
adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Stevenson]. 



[51] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Stevenson, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: The passing of Senator Tillman was an 
event which marked the closing of a remarkable career 
of a man in a remarkable period of the history of South 
Carolina and the history of the United States. I had 
known Senator Tillman since the beginning of his public 
career, and 1 desire to express what I have to say about 
him under three periods. 

The first period of his public career was one of polit- 
ical agitation. Business conditions in South Carolina 
were at a very low ebb in 1885, when he opened his career 
as an agitator for the betterment of the agricultural con- 
ditions in the State. There was no agricultural educa- 
tional facility worth the name in the State of South Caro- 
lina at that time. There was practically no agitation 
looking to the betterment of agricultural conditions and, 
although 10 years had elapsed since the people of the 
State had regained control of their affairs, there was 
probably less prosperity than there had been 5 or 10 
years before. 

At a meeting at Bennettsville, in the greatest farming 
county, from the cotton standpoint, in the cotton belt, in 
August, 1885, Mr. Tillman startled the State by an assault 
upon the drj' rot, as he termed it, which was prevailing in 
South Carolina, and an assault upon what was considered 
to be the ark of the covenant, almost, upon which you did 
not dare to lay your hands. He brought about an agita- 
tion which was far-reaching, and whose eifect has not yet 
ceased to be felt in South Carolina. 
[53] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

At that time Capt. Tillman as he then was — captain of 
the Edgefield Hussars — had never asked for or held pub- 
lic office. He disclaimed any desire to hold public office; 
but he contended that there should be an agricultural in- 
stitution in South Carolina wliich should have nothing but 
agricultural and mechanical education as its object, and 
have the united support of the agricultural interests of 
South Carolina. 

A good deal of confusion has arisen as to the establish- 
ment of the institution which grew up out of that agita- 
tion. Claims and counterclaims have been made as to 
who established it. As a matter of fact, the legislature of 
1888, before Senator Tillman became a public servant in 
any capacity, accepted the bequest of Thomas G. Clemson, 
and provided for the establishment of Clemson College, 
and in 1889 they made provision for the construction of 
the building. So, many have contended that it was not 
the work of Senator Tillman, because he did not come 
into power until December, 1890, when he became gov- 
ernor of the State; l)ut they overlook the fact that the agi- 
tation which he set in motion brought about the will of 
Thomas G. Clemson, who left the John C. Calhoun estate 
to the State of South Carolina for the purpose of estab- 
lishing Clemson College, and made Senator Tillman one 
of the life trustees in that will. 

Therefore it can not be questioned that this agitation 
promoted the establishment of that institution, which was 
the apple of his eye as long as he lived, and which is one 
of the greatest agricultural institutions in the United 
States, and which has given untold benefits to the State 
of South Carolina. That is the fact as to the establish- 
ment of Clemson College. It was to Tillman, not as the 
governor, not as the legislator, but to Tillman as the po- 
litical agitator, to whom we owe Clemson College, with- 
out any question or possibility of cavil, for that agitation 
[54] 



Address of Mr. Stevenson, of South Carolina 

before he ever aspired to public office forced the accept- 
ance of the bequest and the establishment of the 
institution. 

Senator Tillman was not a man who was unknown to 
political life, although he had never aspired to it. When 
he began his agitation it is instructive to look at the asso- 
ciates with whom he had grown up. The list of those 
who were in power in South Carolina, his fellows around 
the board when they met in social communion, were men 
of great distinction: United States Senator Gen. M. C. 
Butler, from Edgefield; Gov. John C. Shepherd, from 
Edgefield; Congressman George D. Tillman, his senior 
brother, from Edgefield; Commissioner of Agriculture 
Andrew Pickens Butler, from Edgefield; chairman of the 
Railroad Commission of South Carolina, Gen. Milledge L. 
Bonham, of Edgefield; solicitor of the judicial circuit in 
which he lived, Richard G. Bonham, from Edgefield; 
United States district attorney, Leroy F. Youmans, from 
Edgefield, first attorney general and then district attor- 
ney — these were the representatives of his county when 
he began the agitation, and were his associates of a life- 
time. 

To be sure they indicate that certainly in Edgefield 
political prominence and power were not wanting, and 
they indicate the fiber of the man who, with his own 
brother serving in this Hall, instituted a crusade against 
the conditions that then existed that was destined to hurl 
from power every man I have named in this distinguished 
list and leave them as political wrecks upon the shores 
of time. And yet Senator Tillman made that beginning, 
and the beginning culminated in 1890 when, at the call 
of the Farmers' Alliance, organized to attempt to amelio- 
rate the conditions of this countrj', which was then in the 
throes of a financial panic, he became candidate for gov- 
ernor and was triumphantly elected in 1890. 
[55] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

And that began the period of his career as governor. 
That career, Mr. Speaker, was one of very distinguished 
ability and very distinguished ideals. The first and the 
greatest of his constructive ideas was the establishment 
in South Carolina of an institution for the technical train- 
ing of the girls of that State, which has grown now to be 
the jewel of all of our educational institutions. And 
yet the statement is frequently met that he was not the 
founder of Winthrop. That is true in one sense of the 
w^ord. Winthrop College, for the training of the girls of 
the State, was founded as an institution in 1887. The 
annual appropriation for it was $5,200 a year, a paltry 
pittance beside the $150,000 that we were spending for 
education of the males of South Carolina. 

When he came into the governorship one of his first 
moves was to provide for the establishment of that institu- 
tion on a firm basis, and in the legislature of 1891 pro- 
vision was made for the obtaining of a site and suitable 
building and making proper appropriation, and it was car- 
ried through by the people of Rock Hill, one of the progres- 
sive communities of the State, giving the State $60,000 to es- 
tablish the institution within their midst. And to-day they 
house within the walls of that college, I believe, 1,500 girls, 
and could house 1,500 more if suitable buildings could be 
erected; and we appropriate $130,000 every year merely 
for the support of the institution. Directly as the result of 
his far-seeing statesmanship toward the education of the 
youth of South Carolina, you will find 80 per cent of the 
teachers in the public schools of that State who are the di- 
rect product of that gi-eat institution. And you go into the 
homes of South Carolina, all over the State, and you see 
them shaped by the splendid education that has been re- 
ceived in that college. I say that is the crowning work of 
his life as governor. 



[56] 



Address of Mr. Stevenson, of South Carolina 

He did several other things. The next was the solving of 
the suffrage question. We were confronted with a ma- 
jority, on the popular vote of South Carolina, of 40,000 
colored people, 40,000 colored votes if they all voted. It 
had been by the most strenuous and sometimes the most 
questionable methods that we had maintained white civi- 
lization and the control of the white people after we had 
once regained control, which it took a revolution to do. 
Senator Tillman by his influence as governor brought 
about the holding of a constitutional convention which 
settled the suffrage question, in my judgment, forever for 
South Carolina, because the census now shows that the in- 
crease in the white race has so greatly exceeded the in- 
crease in the colored race that the voting strength is now 
equal if all are registered and all capable of registering. 
But it was his statesmanship that forced the calling of a 
convention wliich put an educational and a property 
qualification upon the one who desired to vote, and the 
provision was made absolutely equal to all. All a man 
had to do was either to be able to write and to read the 
Constitution or have $300 worth of property on the tax 
books subject to taxation, and he could register and vote. 

I have heard a good deal said sometimes in this Hall 
about the discrimination against the southern colored 
man as to voting. There is no discrimination and never 
has been in South Carolina since this constitution's adop- 
tion. That was the handiwork of Senator Tillman; and 
next to the establishment of Winthrop, I consider that the 
greatest work he ever accomplished in State affairs. 

He did another thing which shows the remarkable 
boldness of the man, when he put the State of South Caro- 
lina into a monopoly of the liquor business, which most 
people concede now was a mistake and which after 14 
years passed away. And those were the three great high- 
water marks of achievement in his career of governor. 
[57] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

As a United States Senator he came to office at a time 
when the people of this country were crying out for an 
increased circulating medium, when our circulating me- 
dium was $27 a head. And when we reflect that to-day it 
is $56 a head, we can see what an enormous advance has 
been made. And he arraigned himself on the side of 
those who were in favor of a great increase and great 
elasticity in the currency of this country, which has been 
justified by the enactment of legislation in the last few 
years which has relieved the stringency and inelasticity of 
finance of this country to such an extent that Senator 
Tillman has been justified in every position he took on 
the financial question. 

He also came here at a time when we were practically 
without a navy and when the construction of a navy was 
tied up by the extortion of the Steel Trust. He won the 
title of " Pitchfork Statesman " in his assault upon the 
people who furnished the armor plate for the construc- 
tion of our Navy, a title that has gone with him to his 
grave as a title of honor and one of which he was more 
proud than of any other title he ever received. 

And his history here as United States Senator was 
bound up with the history of the development of the Navy 
and the development of the interests in building up the 
Navy until it was crowned by the establishment of an 
armor-plate factoi-y, for which he contended 15 years be- 
fore it came, and the administration and the efficiency of 
a navy which has been a thing of pride and a comfort 
during the late war through which we have passed, and 
we have all had to acknowledge the efficiency, the power, 
the modesty, and the high-toned conditions of this branch 
of the service. 

As a literary man the Senator was unsurpassed in the 
use of the English language, in logic that went to the heart 
of every matter, and his most conspicuous effort, in my 
[58] 



Address of Mr. Stevenson, of South Carolina 

judgment, in that line was the correspondence conducted 
with Mr. Henry Watterson, of Louisville, Ky., and Mr. 
George Harvey, of New York, a few years ago when they 
combined in an assault upon the then Gov. Wilson, of 
New Jersey, who was being talked of as a candidate for 
the presidency, and a perusal of the correspondence be- 
tween Senator Tillman and them will show how he un- 
horsed the two past masters in the use of English, and 
swept away the cobwebs of injustice which they were 
hanging about the neck of Mr. Wilson; and this helped 
materially to promote Mr. Wilson's nomination and elec- 
tion to the Presidency. 

Now, just one word I wanted to say as to Senator Till- 
man in his private life. For 33 years he and I were per- 
sonal friends. We frequently divided politically, but the 
personal relations between us have always been the most 
cordial; and I consider the strong point which made him 
unassailable in almost every walk of life was the beautiful 
character of his family life, which caused him to lean 
upon and trust and take counsel of liis helpmeet, his wife, 
who stood around him like a protecting wall through all 
these years; the family life of that man was a benedic- 
tion, and such a signpost as to point every man to the way 
of high living in social circles, such that no finger of scorn 
and no tongue of scandal can assail. 



[59] 



Address of Mr. Walsh, of Massachusetts 

Mr. Speaker: We are met to pay tribute to the memory 
of one of South Carolina's great men, in order that the 
record of this Congress may contain an estimate of the 
career of one of her great statesmen. It is unnecessary 
that tributes sliould be paid in order that his State or the 
Nation might be impressed with the great value of his 
services or with the nobleness of his character, because 
his service in the Nation's Congress speaks for itself. It 
was not my privilege to have known Senator Tillman in- 
timately, but I recall as a young man, when following 
speeches and the career of men in the United States Sen- 
ate, the impression that was made when he first came to 
the Capital of the Republic. I remember how he first 
attracted the attention of the citizens of the Nation and 
left his mark as a fearless statesman. He impressed me 
as one who despised all sham and as one who was not 
afraid to speak plainly upon any issue or upon any ques- 
tion. He went to the meat of any subject which he under- 
took to discuss, and he argued and debated with a 
strength that impresed one as that of a man discussing a 
question with his whole soul. 

I happened to be designated upon the committee that 
went upon that sad journey when the remains of Senator 
Tillman were consigned to their last resting place. No 
one who was present upon that occasion but would be 
impressed with the deep sense of loss that was apparent 
amid the surrounding throng who came to attend the 
funeral exercises. As I before stated, he was one of South 
Carolina's great statesmen. He left behind him a name 
which will be remembered and revered in the days to 
come. That State has given many great men to the Na- 
[60] 



Address of Mr. Walsh, of Massachusetts 

tion's service— Calhoun, Hampton, Butler — but in these 
days those who have been privileged to serve with Ben- 
jamin Byan Tillman I am sure will be of the opinion that 
his name and his career is fit to be placed upon the same 
high pedestal to which we look when we think of those 
men who went before him. 

I am reminded that Senator Tillman at one time de- 
livered an address in which he compared and linked up, 
so to speak, the great history of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, which I have the honor in part to repre- 
sent, and that of the State of South Carolina. It is sig- 
nificant, Mr. Speaker, that to-day in the other branch of 
this Congress the senior Senator from my State is among 
those who are paying tribute to the memory and career 
of Senator Tillman. 1 refer to the senior Senator from 
Massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, who I believe was 
designated by Senator Tillman, either just before his 
death or some time ago, to speak upon his career when he 
should have gone. 

Senator Tillman, although he brought great fame to the 
State of South Carolina, will stand forth not only as one 
of that State's great men, but as one of the Nation's states- 
men, one who was intimately connected with many of the 
great problems with which we have had to contend in 
these later years. I was interested in hearing of his early 
activities in the State of South Carolina, and how with 
that remarkable courage, that indomitable will, he forced 
himself and the issues which he stood for to the front and 
gained a place among the councils of his State. We pay 
this tribute with respect and reverence, with the assur- 
ance that his memorj' will ever be kept green, and that 
his career will be looked upon as a worthy example to 
those who aspire to represent others either in the State 
or the Nation with that fearless and direct courage to 
which the people are entitled. 
[61] 



Address of Mr. Dominick, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: Benjamin Ryan Tillman sat in the seat 
of the immortal Callioun in the United States Senate for 
nearly 24 years — a longer time than anyone else has 
served as a Senator from South Carolina. At the time 
of his entry into South Carolina politics I was only a boy, 
but the events that followed and the leading part he 
played for more than a quarter of a century have left 
some vivid recollections. South Carolina, among all of 
the States, has been noted for having more politics for 
its size than any other State in the Union, and from the 
beginning of her history many of its campaigns have 
attracted nation-wide interest. She has furnished her 
quota of public men and statesmen, who have not only 
left their impress upon the history of the State but upon 
the history of the Nation, and among those public men 
and statesmen Tillman's name will have to be written. 

I will not attempt in this sketch to review South Caro- 
lina politics and affairs. The conditions immediately 
following the Civil War and the corruption of a regime 
from 1868 up until 1876, when the white people deter- 
mined to regain control of their governmental affairs, are 
well known. However, after the political revolution of 
1876, resulting in the redemption of the State, there 
developed an idea among the people that the masses did 
not have a proper voice in the government, and there 
was much complaint of government of " aristocracy," 
" Bourbons," and " ring rule," and in some quarters it 
was charged that the governor and State officers were 
named and chosen at the annual dinner of a prominent 
social club in South Carolina. This naturally resulted in 
[62] 



Address of Mr. Dominick, of South Carolina 

a great deal of unrest among the masses of the people 
and they were beginning to be prepared for the political 
revolution that occurred in 1890. 

Living in the county of Edgefield, near the banks of the 
Savannah River, was a farmer, unheard of and unknown, 
but whose family had written their names upon the 
brightest pages of the history of the State. This farmer 
was Benjamin Ryan Tillman. His brother, Jim Tillman, 
as Bishop Capers declared at a great rally in the city of 
Columbia, was the " oriflamme of his regiment " in the 
war of the Confederacy, and the name of Tillman can be 
found upon the rolls of those who fought in all of the 
wars of this country — the War of the Revolution, the 
Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, 
in which one of his nephews was a colonel, and after- 
wards lieutenant governor of his State, and the great 
World War — one of his sons being now in France, hav- 
ing gone there as captain of his company, and now being 
in charge as major of his battalion. George D. Tillman 
for 16 years sat as a Member of this body, and was rec- 
ognized throughout the Nation as one of its greatest 
statesmen. Ben Tillman, this farmer, taking his cue 
from the Ellenton riot, from the dark days of 76, and 
that matchless and gallant leader. Mart Garj-, who was 
known as " The Bald Eagle of Edgefield," picked up the 
threads of the movement where they were left by him. 
He knew the conditions of the masses of the people; he 
came forward and went on tlie rostrum. At that time 
it is stated that he was ridiculed and laughed at on account 
of his poor showing on the stump, notwithstanding the 
fact that he afterwards developed into one of the great- 
est stump speakers South Carolina has ever produced. 
He knew, though, that behind him there was a vast mul- 
titude of people who were demanding justice and who 
were looking to him as their leader. He appeared in the 
[63] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

State convention of 1888, and went down in defeat as a 
leader of the minority in that convention. 

He went back to his home, continued his agitation, and 
in the historic March convention of 1890 he was nomi- 
nated for governor of South Carolina. The campaign 
that followed is memorable in the history of our State, 
and no true record can be written of it that does not 
record its causes and great effects. Mr. Tillman was 
elected governor by an overwhelming vote of the white 
people. After a stormy administration of two years he 
became a candidate for reelection as governor and was 
opposed by a distinguished fellow citizen of his own 
county and ex-governor of the State. In that campaign 
South Carolina was again aroused from the mountains to 
the seaboard, and partisanship and passion ran high, but 
again a majority of the voters said that he should be 
their governor. Two years more of his administration 
was marked by storm and discord, but it gave to the 
masses that which they sought — freedom of thought and 
political liberty, which God intended they should have. 
His terms as governor of South Carolina were signalized 
by the establishment of the Clemson Agricultural and 
Mechanical College for boys, at Calhoun's old home, Fort 
Hill^an agitation which was begun by him in 1886, for 
industrial and technical education in South Carolina — 
and this, with the establishment of Winthrop College for 
girls, stands forth to-day as the greatest educational 
achievement in the history of the State. 

His administration was also signalized by the establish- 
ment of the State dispensary system for the control of the 
liquor traffic, which many people believed then, and be- 
lieve to-day, that under proper management is the best 
solution of the liquor problem. This system was estab- 
lished in the face of an overwhelming vote in favor of 
prohibition at the election in 1892, and was the cause of 
[64] 



Address of Mr. Dominick, of South Carolina 

much discord in the political, social, and personal affairs 
of the people of South Carolina. The enforcement of this 
law, during the latter part of his last administration as 
governor, gave him an opportunity to show his ability as 
a bold and daring fighter, which characterized him 
throughout his political career. In March, 1894, in a 
clash between some of the constables appointed by him 
for the enforcement of this law and some citizens at 
Darlington, who thought that their rights had been in- 
vaded, some were killed and many others wounded, and 
the riot which ensued came near resulting in serious 
trouble throughout the State. However, Gov. Tillman 
took charge of the situation, ordered out the entire militia 
of the State, took charge of the telegraph lines and rail- 
roads, and very soon restored order, and there was no 
further trouble. 

When he had served two terms as governor he was 
overwhelmingly elected to the United States Senate — hav- 
ing made a county to county canvass throughout the State 
for that office. 

Senator Tillman was a striking figure, and he is missed 
by the people of his State and in the councils of the Nation. 
He will go down in the history of South Carolina and of 
this Nation as one of the strongest men who has served 
South Carolina as governor or represented her in the 
United States Senate. Of his services as a Senator they 
can and will be spoken of better by those who served with 
him there for the past quarter of a century, but on this 
occasion I can not refrain from quoting the closing para- 
graphs of an editorial written by John K. Aull, in the 
Charleston American, upon the death of Senator Tillman : 

Undoubtedly, while he went to Washington under most un- 
welcome conditions, being openly hostile to what he believed to 
be the wicked Cleveland regime, his genius soon allayed the 
errors and suspicions of his confreres and he became a shining 
115070°— 19 5 [65] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

light. Space does not permit us to sketch even briefly the many 
commanding positions he assumed in legislation, nor is this the 
place. We have watched him there upon the Senate floor match- 
ing his genius with giants of the old days and coming off never 
second best. His name will long live to heighten the fame of 
Carolina in a body whose traditions number among them the 
glory of Calhoun. 

Even had his health not failed him, it is gravely doubtful if 
in recent or future years he could mingle with the same zest 
amongst the almost entirely new faces in the Senate. His old 
colleagues were gone. They were to him merely spirits that cast 
perhaps across his daily path through the Senate aisle shadows 
of bygone days, days when the polished Senator Hoar, who 
learned so warmly to love him, referred, not banteringly, but 
earnestly to him as " the best lawyer in the Senate." Hoar, Vest, 
Bacon, Allison, Daniel, Hale, Cockrell, Aldrich, and many like 
them, who left him one by one for awhile are with him now — for 
although many of these differed with him and often with one 
another, they were all one in pure Americanism, loving and serv- 
ing the land they honored with an untarnished patriotism. 

So let us leave him with them. The light of heaven shines 
upon those mooted questions over which they opposed only the 
feeble light of even their great intellects. There will be no " ad- 
journments " there, no " points of order," no " filibuster," no 
tariffs, subsidies, or silver question to wrangle over, but all sweet 
peace, truth, harmony, and happiness forever. 

What more appropriate may we say than that he deserves the 
lines written upon the death of Napoleon : 

" The lightnings may flash and the loud thunders rattle; 
He heeds not, he hears not; he's free from all pain; 
He sleeps his last sleep, he has fought his last battle; 
No sound can awake him to glory again!" 

In his native soil, in the little village of Trenton, there 
now rests in peace one who forged his way to a high place 
among the truly great of this Nation, and 

Taller he seems in death. 



[06] 



Address of Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: I feel that I can add nothing, or but little 
at best, to the eloquent tributes that have already been 
spoken concerning the life work of a splendid character 
who figured prominently for more than a quarter of a 
century in the national affairs of our Government. I, 
however, was associated largely with him, he being chair- 
man of the Committee on Naval Affairs of the Senate and 
I of the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House. This 
afforded an opportunity for official and personal associa- 
tion. 

I desire, first of all, to bear testimony to the cordial 
good friendship which existed between us. Senator 
Tillman was a unique character. He was built in a mold 
strictly his own. He was unique in many respects, and the 
very uniqueness of his character not only attracted at- 
tention but challenged admiration. He was a man of 
strong personality. His personality was positive and de- 
cidedly his own. We can not find, I think, in private or 
public life a duplicate of Senator Tillman. He possessed 
traits of personal character that not only attracted, not 
only challenged our esteem, but gained for him admira- 
tion, and brought him forward prominently in the affairs 
of the Government. 

He was a man of strong convictions. There was noth- 
ing, if I may use a homely expression, of milk and cider in 
his composition. He was a man who believed sincerely 
and strongly whatever he believed, and he had the cour- 
age to express his convictions. He was a man of per- 
sistent purpose. Once he was convinced of the righteous- 
ness of his cause, once he was satisfied of the desirability 
of his course of conduct, once that it came to him as a 

[67] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

conviction of duty, there was no let up. Continually, per- 
sistently he strove for that which his judgment and his 
conscience approved. As we stand under these circum- 
stances, and would give expression not in mere formal 
words, but in the sincere convictions which we entertain 
of the man, all of us must admire this persistency of pur- 
pose, this strength of conviction, this strong personality. 

He was a man of strong likes and dislikes. A man who 
has a strong personality, who has a persistent purpose, 
who has strong convictions of right and of wrong, a man 
who draws the line tautly between right and wrong in 
personal life, in private affairs, in public affairs, in the 
duties and responsibilities of government, could not be 
otherwise in the natural order of things than a man of 
strong likes and dislikes. He drew his friends to him 
with a strong grasp, and those in whom he did not have 
confidence — those whose integrity of purpose or of char- 
acter he doubted — he repelled, because there was a con- 
geniality between Senator Tillman and the truth, and 
there was an aspersion between him and guile and wrong. 
Hence it is that when we speak of him as a man of strong 
likes, a man in whom flowed strongly and vigorously the 
milk of human kindness for those who shared his esteem, 
we must at the same time admire that corollary attribute 
of character that he despised hypocrisy and made it mani- 
fest on all occasions. 

He broke away from the established custom of conserv- 
atism. That was natural, and that was one of the promi- 
nent outstanding traits of his character, and one of the 
strong, predominant features of his life and his services. 

Most of us run along in the way of least resistance. 
We go along the line of established organization, of estab- 
lished conservatism. It was not so with Senator Tillman. 
He had some convictions about the existing order of 
things. Some things were going along which did not re- 
[68] 



Address of Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 

ceive the sanction of his judgment or the approval of his 
conscience, and he broke away completely and strongly 
from the organized conservatism of the day and started 
out on lines of his own thought and of his own judgment 
and approval. 

1 would not seek to compare him in all respects, but the 
suggestion occurs to me that in the olden days John the 
Baptist broke away from the established conservatism in 
religious affairs. John Knox broke away from the estab- 
lished organization. Martin Luther battled the conserva- 
tism which he believed was not only promulgating but 
establishing error and wrong. And in political matters in 
his State, and to some extent in the Nation, Senator Till- 
man broke away from this organized conservatism, and 
he challenged the thought and attention, and he brought 
the thought and attention of the people of his own State 
and of the Nation to think along other and different lines. 

Senator Tillman was honest. He became known here 
and was often spoken of as " honest Ben Tillman." How- 
ever much anyone differed with him, however much they 
might separate themselves from his conclusions, however 
much they might challenge his doctrines of political 
economy, no one ever doubted or really challenged liis 
personal honesty and integrity of character or his political 
honesty and sincerity of purpose. 

Again, Mr. Speaker, he was faithful to the trust that was 
reposed in him. No one has ever called him a derelict in 
politics. No one has ever spoken of him as in any way 
betraying the trust and the confidence which the people, 
not only of his State but of the Union, reposed in him, as 
an honest man and a public servant. So that to-day, 
under these surroundings, we can speak of him as an 
honest man and a faithful public servant. 

Finally, Mr. Speaker, coming here as he did under pe- 
culiar and unique surroundings, occupying at the first a 
[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

strange and unique attitude that called forth many criti- 
cisms and comments in the papers, causing individuals 
and the press to speak in terms that were out of the or- 
dinary' routine of political literature, he grew in the 
esteem and in the affection of his associates and of the 
country. 

During the past summer the end came, somewhat sud- 
denly. I was selected as one of the committee to go 
to his home in South Carolina to lay away his hody for 
the resurrection. It was only his hody that we laid in the 
ground, not Ben Tillman. His spirit had risen into that 
higher, nobler, grander, larger, better life where the aspi- 
rations of his soul in all the years of his life — and a large, 
rich life it had been — had said, " It is not death but life I 
crave; a larger, better, richer, fuller life I would have." 

He realized it, and he has gone to the reward of the just. 
"Wherever the honest, wherever the faithful are. Senator 
Tillman is there, and he has left here with us the name, 
the reputation, the character of an honest and faithful 
man. 



[70] 



Address of Mr. Nicholls, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: It is indeed hard for me to add anything 
to the wonderful tributes and the just tributes that have 
been paid here to our deceased colleague, Senator Till- 
man. I come from the people and from the section of the 
country that, when Tillman started, were bitterly op- 
posed to him. From the time I was a child I had been 
taught that Senator Tillman was representing what was 
not best for the State, although the people with whom 
I most associated did not for one minute question his 
honor or his integrity. On one occasion when I was a 
mere boy I was talking to the overseer on a large planta- 
tion in my home county. He was, as we knew the word, 
a strong Tillmanite. The man who owned that planta- 
tion was as bitter against Senator Tillman as any man in 
South Carolina. The overseer and the man who owned 
the plantation had been boys together before the Civil 
War. In fact, the overseer's father had been the overseer 
of the owner's father before the Civil War. 

I asked him, purely from curiosity, " How in the world 
can you support Tillman?" He said: " Sam, So-and-So 
told me the other day that we needed a reform in South 
Carolina; that ring rule had long existed; and that while 
he was a party in a way to the ring rule, something ought 
to be done, and that something ought to be started to 
give the honest, common people a chance to have a voice 
in this Government. I said " — that is, this man said — 
" ' That is exactly what Tillman is trying to do.' He said: 
" It should be done, but I don't think Tillman is the man." 
And this overseer said to me, " It did not occur to me that 
it made any particular difference who the man was, what 
we wanted was a reform, and we could change the man 
[71] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

if we found he was not the right one." To-day, Mr. 
Speaker, the man who made that remark about not believ- 
ing that Senator Tillman was the right man is his friend 
and was his friend at the time of his death. 

As one of my colleagues has stated, and I truly believe, 
there is no State in the Union where politics is so bitter 
and so partisan as in my own State of South Carolina. 
I am not referring to the two great parties, but to fac- 
tional politics within the party. One reason that I give 
for this is because in our State all candidates for oiiice 
go upon the same stump and have joint debates which at 
times get very personal. Their followers naturally take 
sides, and I have seen the time in South Carolina— and 
my other colleagues from there have seen the same 
thing— when a man almost took his life in his hand to go 
upon the stump there on either side. 

When I was a boy I once asked why Senator Tillman 
was not afraid of having more fights, as I expressed it, 
and a gentleman from our home town said, " Well, I will 
tell you, Sam, why he is not afraid. It is because most of 
the fighting men are on his side of the proposition." That 
was largely true, for the people of South Carolina thought 
that they had been mistreated by certain politicians, and 
the people of South Carolina who supported Senator Till- 
man were willing to fight for those rights of which they 
thought they had been deprived, and they got beliind him 
and elected him governor. What a howl went up through 
this country. 

Almost every newspaper, not only of South Carolina 
but throughout the United States, called him a dema- 
gogue, called him everything that they could well call 
him and not be indicted for libel. What did he do? He 
" stuck to his guns," if you will pardon a crude expression. 
He worked for the interests he had promised to serve. 
He was not afraid. No man in the State could run him 
[72] 



Address of Mr. Nicholls, of South Carolina 

from the stump. He went before his people, and he 
advocated their cause. He was reelected governor in 
spite of strong opposition from strong men. The money 
powers of his State, while, of course, I do not charge them 
with being corrupt, were against him. The newspapers 
of the State were largely against him, but the masses of 
the toiling people of South Carolina stood behind him. 
He was reelected governor, as I said, and afterwards was 
elected to the United States Senate. Why, Mr. Speaker, 
I remember, although at that time I was too young to 
have any voice in politics, that there was strong talk in 
South Carolina that the Senate would not seat him when 
he came. But he was seated; and, Mr. Speaker, in his 
early days here, with that strong tongue that he had, he 
caused some men who had mocked and laughed at him 
to be very strong for him before he got through. He 
turned out to be not what the papers said he was, a radi- 
cal and an obstructionist. I will not say at the time of 
his death that he was what South Carolina would have 
called a conservative. Senator Tillman could not be con- 
servative. As my colleague from Tennessee [Mr. Padgett] 
has stated, when he believed a thing there could be no 
conservatism. He worked to the end that he thought was 
right. 

When I came to Washington, if you will pardon me for 
referring to myself, and I do it for the reason that I did 
not know him well when I came here, I went to his office 
the first day and said, " Senator, I came in to pay my 
respects." 

He knew pretty well the attitude of every man in South 
Carolina as to himself. If you mentioned a man from 
Barnwell, Spartanburg, Columbia, Oconee, if he was a 
man of any political prominence. Senator Tillman could 
tell you how he stood with him in his politics. I said, 
" Senator, I came in to pay my respects." He said, " Sam, 
[73] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

I am glad to see you here, but I have not a particle of use 
for your politics." That was his blunt way of speaking. 
It made me angrj', and I said, " Senator, I have got no 
more for yours than you have for mine." He said, " I 
will make a trade with you. If you will let me alone over 
there I will let you alone over here." I said, " You have 
traded." And I walked out of his office. The next day 
the 'phone rang, and the Senator said, " Sam, can you 
come to my office? " I went over, and he said, " I did not 
mean anything yesterday. We have differed in politics, 
but I want us to get along together. You are a new man, 
a young man, and I possibly can give you advice and in- 
formation that you will need." I shook hands with the 
Senator, and from that day to the day of his death he was 
like a father to me. There was no time when I needed 
advice that I did not go to Senator Tillman, knowing that 
I would get good and honest advice. 

To show )'ou the character of the Senator, the night 
before the last campaign opened I went to him and asked 
him to do a favor for a friend of mine. It turned out 
that we were both very much criticized by some of the 
newspapers because we granted the favor, a favor which 
was nothing more than was just and right. The Senator 
at that time thought that he would be in the race for the 
Senate again. I went to Senator Tillman and I said, 
" Senator, I know that you made this recommendation 
because I asked you to do it, because you believed I 
would not mislead you. Feeling as I do about it, I believe 
it my duty to come out in the papers and state that I will 
take the whole responsibility for that action in case it 
hurts you in your race." He said, " I will not let you do 
it. I will never put the responsibility for what I do on 
any man. It is true your recommendation had some- 
thing to do with my signing it, but I have signed it and 
I am behind it." 

[74] 



Address of Mr. Niciioi.ls, of South Carolina 

That shows you, Mr. Speaker, the manner of man that 
Senator Tillman was. I am sorry I have been unable, on 
account of being away from the city, to write what I 
consider a fitting eulogy of this great man. Our State, as 
has been well said, has produced great men, but no man 
in the historj- of South Carolina has ever been in a position 
to make bigger history, to make more lasting history than 
Senator Tillman. We all remember at the time when 
the Democratic Party took charge of the Senate there was 
some talk throughout the country that Senator Tillman 
wanted to be chairman of another committee than Naval 
Affairs. He was made chairman of Naval Affairs, and, 
Mr. Speaker, I would rather be chairman of the Naval 
Affairs Committee or of the Military Affairs Committee, 
if I cared to go down in history and properlj' serve my 
country in the time of this great world war, than to be 
chairman of any committee in either branch of Congress. 

He was not stingj'; he was not extravagant. He be- 
lieved that what was necessary in this war should be 
given and freely given. And he gave to the service of his 
country one of the noblest boys whom I know. He was 
my personal friend. I say he gave him to his country^ 
but fortunately he has not been killed. He is in France 
now. He is a " chip off the old block," and I am proud 
to say that, although this country has sustained the loss 
of our great statesman, he leaves one or more behind 
him who some day may be able to in part fill his place. 

The last time I talked with Senator Tillman was the 
day before his last stroke of paralysis. He was discuss- 
ing every phase of the war and seemed to think that his 
days were numbered. He told me that he hoped, regard- 
less of politics in South Carolina, he would live long 
enough to see America and her allies victorious in this 
war. If he had lived that long, 1 believe his every am- 
bition would have been fulfilled. My great regret is that 
[75] 



Memorial Aduresses: Senator Tillman 

God in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to allow him to 
live to see the plans which he had so carefully prepared 
carried out to a successful conclusion. 

He died as he had lived, " with his boots on," fighting 
for the people, for democracy, and for everything that he 
thought right and just for the upbuilding of humanity. 



[76] 



Address of Mr. Whaley, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: Believing that otiiers who will speak on 
this occasion will give a biographical sketch of South 
Carolina's illustrious son in whose honor we have met, 
I shall avoid the probability of repetition and undertake 
a brief analysis of those characteristics of the late Sena- 
tor Benjamin Ryan Tillman which made him so valuable 
a citizen and governor of the State of South Carolina and 
such an effective Member of the United States Senate. 

Tillman was born on a farm, reared on a farm, and, 
after the attainment of the years of manhood, followed 
agriculture as an occupation. It is said that his agricul- 
tural experience was not particularly successful, and in 
this respect he had much in common with the agi-icultural 
producers of his time, not only in South Carolina but 
throughout the United States. During his years of ill- 
rewarded efforts upon the farm, his observation, his 
difficulties, and his disappointments impressed indelibly 
upon his mind the severe disadvantages and the great 
discouragements which all too frequently surround the 
agricultural producer. It was through an endeavor to 
alleviate the condition of the farming class that Tillman 
entered public life and gave his attention primarily to tlie 
solution of the great problems which must be solved be- 
fore American agriculture can be placed upon a firm 
and satisfactory foundation. 

From his youth he had grappled with the most practi- 
cal problems in a most practical way. He learned in 
the hard school of adversity. His principles of economics 
were not gleaned from books. Although he was in later 
life one of the best-read men in the best of literature, 
the mental training wliich enabled him to achieve success 
[77] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tilemax 

was acquired chieflj^ as an incident and result of his daily 
observation of the circumstances under which the pro- 
ducing classes labor and the evils with which they must 
contend. 

He beheld ignorance among people who were conduct- 
ing an industrj' which requires the widest training and 
skill. 

He observed injustice wliich deprived the agricultural 
worker of the due reward of his labor. Contemplation of 
these evils and injustices not onlj-^ developed in him a 
power to reason, but nourished deep-seated emotions 
which became predominating features of his political ac- 
tivities and public addresses. No amount of abstract 
economic reasoning would have produced the political 
revolution which he led prior to his election to the gov- 
ernorship of South Carolina. In the words of an illus- 
trious President of the United States, the farmers of South 
Carolina were " confronted by conditions, and not theo- 
ries." No ordinary methods would have aroused them to 
united effort sufficiently organized and sufficiently aggres- 
sive to overthrow those who were at that time dominant 
in the public affairs of his State. 

It has been asserted and is quite likely true that Tillman 
frequently indulged in extravagances of statement which 
more deliberate and careful men would have avoided. 
No one, however, has ever accused him of overstating a 
fact for an ulterior of selfish purpose. Dealing with con- 
ditions which required heroic remedies, he made his at- 
tacks with what might be considered a reckless abandon, 
upon the assumption that the end justified the means. He 
was seeking results, and his overwhelming victory in the 
face of tremendous opposition seems to have justified the 
measures he adopted. That a farmer should be elected 
and reelected governor of South Carolina at that time 
in the political histoiy of the State was an accomplish- 
[78] 



Address of Mr. Whaley, of South Carolina 

ment which could not have been achieved by the ordinary 
weapons of political conflict. 

Tillman's mind was that of a nonconformist. He ac- 
knowledged the binding force of no political convention- 
alities. Before he had been one month in the United 
States Senate he had broken the rule which requires 
silence on the part of a new Member and had made a 
speech which earned him the sobriquet of " Pitchfork 
Tillman." From that day to the time of his retirement 
from active participation in the work of the Senate he 
was recognized as a factor to be considered in almost 
every important piece of legislation. He was not one who 
delighted to participate in discussion merely for the pur- 
pose of showing his skill in debate, but, whenever any 
subject appealed to him as calling for action on his part, 
he threw the whole power of his keen intellect, his mar- 
velous skill at repartee, and his unsurpassed command of 
vitriolic language into the discussion. 

He asked no quarter and he gave none. Naturally this 
stj'le of fighting made him few warm personal friends but 
aroused many enemies. It is a well known and universally 
acknowledged fact, however, that none of the animosities 
thus aroused cost him either the confidence or the respect 
of his associates. His honesty of purpose was not brought 
in dispute. Knowing the purity of his motives, even those 
who felt the sting of his arrows admired his skill and held 
him personally in the highest esteem. His diatribes fur- 
nished frequent occasion for jest, but they supplied little 
humor to those who were the objects of his invective. 

Unlike most men who enter upon crusades against 
economic evils, Tillman was not destructive. He founded 
the Clemson College for the training of the young men in 
agriculture and the applied sciences. He established the 
Winthrop Normal and Industrial School for Women. He 
secured the enactment of more just and equitable laws 
[79] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

for the assessment of taxes. He secured the election of 
railroad commissioners by the people, with authority 
vested in them to fix passenger and freight rates. He se- 
cured the enactment of the primarj^ system of party nomi- 
nations. He was the author of the dispensary law which 
eliminated the public barroom from South Carolina and 
led the way for prohibition. These were a few of the more 
important accomplishments of four years in the governor- 
ship, during which time he had as strong an opposition as 
ever a governor faced. 

Entering the United States Senate in 1895, he was for 23 
consecutive years a Member of that body. Although the 
Republicans were in control of the Senate when the rail- 
road rate bill was under consideration in 1906, a split 
among the Republicans threw the management of that 
measure upon Senator Tillman — a task which he per- 
formed with much credit to himself and to his party. He 
was an advocate of a large na\^ and made his influence 
felt. In the framing of a multitude of important measures 
he participated actively, always fearlessly and aggres- 
sively representing what he believed to be the best inter- 
ests of the people of the United States and of his own 
State. 

To the youth of America the career of Benjamin Ryan 
Tillman should be of interest. It will be worth while for 
them to remember that it was through no favor of good 
fortune or prestige of family that he attained his high po- 
sition in the councils of our Government. Neither was it 
personal ambition that led him into public life. He saw 
the need of public reforms, and, although the task was 
great and the prospect of success doubtful, he undertook 
it without hesitation and devoted himself without reserve 
to the amelioration of the condition of his fellow citizens. 
He had few of the advantages of school education but 
neglected no opportunity for the improvement of his 
[80] 



Address of Mr. Whaley, of South Carolina 

mind. He had confidence in himself and accepted liis own 
judgment as his guide, even though he diverged from the 
course and methods laid down by American political lead- 
ers during a century of our national history. 

His career emphasizes the value of practical experience 
in early youth, courage to undertake a difficult task, and 
willingness to be a nonconformist when sound judgment 
and high motives indicate that as the proper course. It 
would be difficult to find in American political history an- 
other instance of a man whose public career shows ad- 
vancement direct from the farm to the governorship and 
thence to the United States Senate solely as the result of 
individual merit and ability. 



[81] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: Benjamin Ryan Tillman, the man whose 
memory we to-day honor, was born in Edgefield County, 
S. C, August 11, 1847. He was a son of Benjamin Ryan 
Tillman and Sophia Hancock, and was the youngest of 11 
children. When he was but 2 years of age his father died, 
and he was reared by his mother on the plantation about 
12 miles from the town of Edgefield. He studied at home 
under private tutors until he was 14 years of age, when 
he attended a school conducted by Mr. George Golphin, a 
scholarly man who enjoyed the distinction of having 
served as tutor to Senator Butler, Gen. Mart Gary, and 
many others prominent in the political life of South Caro- 
lina. In July, 1864, when not quite 17 years of age, he left 
school and volunteered in the service of the Confederate 
Army, but while on his way to join the army he was taken 
sick, and it was during this illness that he lost his left eye 
by reason of the formation of an abscess. For two years 
he was an invalid. Upon his recovery he went to Florida, 
where he spent a year, returning in 1868 to Edgefield 
County, where he engaged in farming. While thus en- 
gaged Senator Tillman devoted his leisure time to study, 
in his own language, " reading everything of value he 
could lay his hands upon." He had the most retentive 
memory of any man I ever knew, and it enabled him in 
recent years to quote from the poets verses he had not 
read for years. Even in speeches delivered by him in 
early life this familiarit>' with the old masters was evident, 
and was a constant source of surprise to those who knew 
that he had not enjoyed the privilege of a college or uni- 
versity course. 

[82] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

When, in 1876, the white people of South Carolina de- 
termined to overthrow the rule of the carpetbagger, the 
scalawag, and the negro, Tillman participated with all 
the force and aggi-essiveness that has characterized every 
effort of his life. He organized the Red Shirts in that 
community. Under Capt. A. P. Butler he participated in 
what is known as the Hamburg riot; and on that occasion 
demonstrated his physical courage and his capacity for 
leadership. With the Edgefield Hussars he started to the 
Ellenton riot, but his company did not reach there in time 
to participate in the fight. 

With the redempUon of the State from negro rule, 
Tillman resumed his quiet life upon the farm, and from 
this seclusion did not emerge until 1885, when he went to 
Bennettsville, S. C, as a delegate to the annual meeting 
of the South Carolina Agricultural Society. Tillman had 
never delivered a public address, but upon reaching Ben- 
nettsville he announced that he was going to address the 
convention and would have something out of the ordinary 
to say to the delegates. He did not disappoint them. He 
pictured the poverty of the farmers, three-fourths of 
whom were borrowing money upon their crops before 
they were made, and with fierj' eloquence he denounced 
the State officials for their indifference to the agricultural 
interests of the State. He urged the farmers to demand 
the establishment of an agricultural school worthy of the 
name, in connection with the South Carolina College, and 
to require the board of agriculture to annually hold farm- 
ers' institutes in the various counties of the State. He 
spoke for an hour, and when he concluded, though neither 
he nor his hearers reahzed it, he had started a revolution 
in the State of South Carolina. 

From that day, August 5, 1885, to the day of his death, 
July 3, 1918, Tu^LMAN occupied the center of the political 
stage in South Carolina, and the story of his public life 
[83] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

is the story of the political life of the State. To appre- 
ciate the impression made by his Bennettsville speech, one 
has to understand the political conditions then existing. 
Prior to the Civil War the State of South Carolina 
was ruled by a small group of men of great intelligence 
and of high character, most of whom resided in Charles- 
ton and Columbia. The State officials were generally 
selected by this group from among the professional men 
of the State. The one-horse farmer and the man without 
social standing never dreamed of his having the right 
to hold office and he even entertained some doubt as to 
his right to vote. Certainly, had one of them announced 
his candidacy for office, he would have been in imminent 
danger of sequestration in an asylum for the insane. At 
the conclusion of the war the old leaders, their heirs and 
assigns, immediately resumed their control of the Dem- 
ocratic Party; but as there was a majority of 30,000 
negroes of voting age, the Republican Party, composed 
of the negroes, the cai-pctbaggers, and the scalawags, 
were able to control the elections and did run the State 
government until 1876, when negro rule was overthrown 
and white supremacy established for all time. 

Immediately following 1876 there was a natural dis- 
position on the part of the rank and tile of the people to 
blindly follow the leadership of the men who had con- 
trolled the party in the fight for the redemption of the 
State. Again there was the realization that any division 
within the party would endanger the freedom so dearly 
purchased. Consequently any criticism of the conduct 
of the State government was met with the warning that 
such a course would cause a division in the party and 
make possible a recurrence of negro rule with all of its 
horrors and outrages. It is manifest that this condition 
of affairs made it easy for the old leaders to perpetuate 
their control of the government. Conditions were such 
[84] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

that corruption in the government could have existed 
without the knowledge of the people. But to the ever- 
lasting credit of those in control it must be said that, 
notwithstanding their autocratic power and the unlimited 
opportunity for misuse of that power, careful and even 
hostile investigation in after years failed to disclose 
evidence of corruption on the part of a single State official. 
The honesty of those in control was testified to by Senator 
Tillman in an address delivered in the Senate in 1898, 
when he described the conditions then existing in the 
following language: 

The State was democratic or independent in national politics, 
but it was aristocratic in local afTairs. Tliis aristocracy, be it 
said to its credit, gave to the State as good government, so far 
as purity and honesty is concerned, as any country ever had. 
But a prouder, more arrogant, or hot-headed ruling class never 
existed. 

With tliis statement of the political conditions one can 
appreciate the sensation caused by the speech of Tillman 
at Bennettsville in August, 1885. It brought down upon 
his head the wrath of the press as well as of the political 
leaders. " Farmer Ben " became the target for their sa- 
tire and abuse. In a series of letters he defended his 
course and urged upon the farmers of the State his sug- 
gestion to establish an agricultural college. He cited 
the agricultural colleges of Mississippi and of Michigan 
as proof of the practicability and the wisdom of his sug- 
gestion, and published a lot of data secured from Stephen 
D. Lee, then president of the Mississippi college. His 
letters enlisted the support of many of the leading farmers 
of the State, who in the spring of 1886 held a convention 
at which resolutions indorsing his views were adopted. 
As the desired object could be accomplished only by leg- 
islation, it was inevitable that the "Farmers' Alliance," 
as it was called, should take an interest in the elections. 
[85] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

The old leaders, however, still firmly held the reins and 
the movement had not attained sufficient momentum to 
wrest control from them. 

Tillman continued his agitation, delivering addresses in 
various counties of the State during the year 1887. In 
the political campaign of 1888 the farmers endeavored 
to induce several of the old political leaders to lead their 
fight, but their efforts were in vain. Two years later, in 
the spring of 1890, what was known as the " Shell Mani- 
festo " was issued, a document that became the platform 
of the reform movement. A convention followed and 
TiLXMAN was selected as the nominee for governor. At- 
torney General Earle and Gen. Bratton were later selected 
as the nominees of the faction that became known as the 
Conservatives. Of the seven hundred lawyers of the 
State only forty were known to be supporters of Tillman. 
The press was unanimously opposed to him, but a joint de- 
bate was held in every county of the State, and as nearly 
every man, woman, and child in the State turned out to 
hear the speakers, Tillman was able to present his cause 
to the people. The feeling between the factions became 
so great that at many meetings the speakers were unable 
to make themselves heard, the factions engaging in a 
contest to see which could cheer their champion the loud- 
est and the longest. After the first few meetings there 
was never any doubt about the result, and Tillman was 
nominated, carrying all but four counties of the State. 

Dissatisfied with tlie result, the opposition placed an 
independent ticket in the field in the general election, but 
many of the Conservative leaders of the opposition failed 
to support the independent movement, and the followers 
of Tillman were even more determined, the result being 
the overwhelming election of Capt. Tillman. 

In this campaign Tillman demonstrated his wonder- 
ful ability as a stump speaker. Picturesque figure that 
[86] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

he was, with his Napoleonic features, shaded by his broad- 
brimmed hat, he never failed to attract the attention of 
the people. In this campaign he spoke to the people in 
a language they understood, of their right to participate 
in the government of the State, and not merely to register 
the will of others. In passionate language he denounced 
the editor of the News and Courier, Capt. F. W. Dawson, 
the brilliant leader of the opposition, and as he inveighed 
against ring rule he aroused his supporters to such a 
fever of excitement that many of them were willing to 
fight for him, and, if need be, to die for him. His wonder- 
ful success as a public speaker is the more remarkable 
in view of the fact that he was thirty-six years old when 
he delivered his first public address at Bennettsville, and 
had he entered public life as early as do most men it is 
interesting to speculate upon the degree of perfection he 
might have attained. As it was, I do not believe he had 
an equal. 

During Tillman's first term as governor he was unable 
to accomplish many of the reforms he advocated because 
of the lack of cooperation on the part of the legislature, 
a majority of whom were his supporters. In 1892 he 
asked for reelection and in the campaign that followed 
designated many of the legislators as mere " driftwood " 
and urged the people to elect a legislature that would 
support him. 

For reelection he was opposed by one of the ablest men 
in the State, ex-Gov. John C. Sheppard. As in the pre- 
vious campaign, factional feeling ran high, there being 
as clear a division between the Tillmanites and anti- 
Tillmanites as there is between Democrats and Repub- 
licans. The joint debates drew tremendous audiences and 
the feeling was so intense that men came armed, and only 
the coolness of the candidates prevented great loss of life. 



[87] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

Tillman was reelected and very few anti-Tillnianites were 
elected to the legislature. 

Of his service as governor it is fair to quote from his 
last message to the legislature what he regarded as the 
achievements of his administrations: 

First. The erection and endowment of Clemson College. 

Second. The overthrow of the Coosaw monopoly. 

Third. The just and equitable assessment of taxes on 
railroads and other corporations and the victory' in the 
courts compelling them to pay. 

Fourth. The passage of the dispensary law and the 
destruction of the barrooms. 

Fifth. Refunding of the State debt, which saved -fTS.OOO 
a year in interest. 

Sixth. The establishment of Winthrop Normal and In- 
dustrial College for Women. 

Seventh. Election of the railroad commission by the 
people and allowing them to fix passenger and freight 
rates. 

Eighth. The inauguration of the primary system of 
party nominations for all offices in the gift of the people. 

The student will search in vain for a record of achieve- 
ment by any South Carolina executive to compare with 
this record of constructive reforms. The unfriendly critic 
may criticize the establisliment of the dispensary system, 
but as we now look back upon it and recall that its estab- 
lishment meant the abolishment of the barroom we must 
concede that it was a long step toward the prohibition of 
the sale of alcoholic liquors. In theory the plan was pos- 
sibly the best solution of the problem, if liquors were to 
be sold under any system at all, but in practice it failed 
because of the inability to divorce the liquor business 
from the politics of a State, and the dispensary system 
soon became so corrupt that men who at heart were not 
in favor of prohiliilion were only too glad of an oppor- 

[88] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

tunity to vote for prohibition in order to get rid of the dis- 
pensary system. 

But no man can question the beneficial effect of the 
other constructive reforms above enumerated. Tillman 
by his eloquence aroused the people to a realization of 
their right to participate in the government of the State, 
and then through the primarj' system he furnished them 
the means to exercise that right. But he did not stop 
there. Having placed this power in the hands of the 
people, with the vision of a statesman he recognized that 
the greatest safeguard against the abuse of such power 
was the education of the people, and therefore, in addi- 
tion to extending the common schools, he established dur- 
ing his administration the Clemson College for boys and 
the Winthrop College for girls. Much of the material and 
moral progress of South Carolina during the last 20 years 
can be traced to the beneficent influence of these two in- 
stitutions that will ever stand as enduring monuments to 
the memorj' of Gov. Tillman. 

During his first campaign for governor, Tillman, in 
closing his speech at Anderson, S. C, said: 

How many of you can look back and recall the names of South 
Carolina's governors? Take out the names of the seven since 1876, 
and with the exception of Hayne, McDuffie, and Hammond the 
names of the rest are written in sand. I do not want to be such 
a governor. My aspiration is higher and holier than that. I 
would like to be a governor to whom after ages will look back 
and say that he was a " Carolinian and a patriot." 

When one considers the far-reaching beneficial effects 
of the achievements above enumerated, he must conclude 
that the ambition of Tn,LMAN was gratified; that after ages 
will look back upon his administrations, and looking back 
will say " He was a Carolinian and a patriot." 

At the conclusion of his second term as governor Till- 
man opposed Senator M. C. Butler, who was seeking re- 

[89] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

election to the United States Senate. His hold upon the 
people was as strong as ever, and he was easily elected 
over his opponent. From the day that Tillman entered 
the Senate he impressed himself upon the Nation just as 
he had upon the State of South Carolina. His first speech 
in that body was delivered to a crowded Senate and a 
crowded gallery and attracted the attention of the people 
of the entire countiy. In many respects it resembled his 
first public speech at Bennettsville, in 1885. As on that 
occasion, the conditions were ripe for the appearance of 
a Tillman. In the South and West there was great un- 
rest and great dissatisfaction with the administration of 
Cleveland, and there had begun the agitation that cul- 
minated in the free-silver fight of 1896. Tillman took the 
fight of the farmers to the Senate. Announcing that he 
was not familiar with the proprieties of the Senate and 
that he intended to use plain, blunt words, he proceeded 
to denounce Cleveland as no President had ever been de- 
nounced in the Senate Chamber. He pictured the eco- 
nomic conditions of the agricultural sections of the coun- 
try as a result of the low prices for farm products, and 
charged the existence in Wall Street of a group of men 
who controlled the credit of the country, and thus the 
destinies of the people. The speech attracted the atten- 
tion of the country. The Nation seemed about to divide 
itself, as South Carolina had, into Tillmanite and anti- 
Tillmanite camps. Pitchfork Ben became the target of 
the editorial writers of the East, who declared that, by 
the language he used, he had disgraced the Senate. The 
West, however, hailed him as a fearless exponent of the 
evils they believed to exist. 

In the Senate the effect of his speech was to cause his 
colleagues to conclude that, while he was rough and rude 
in his manner of speech, he was a man of extraordi- 
nary ability, whose acquaintance might with profit be 
[90] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

cultivated. And as they learned to know him they came 
to know that he was absolutely honest and sincere, and 
within a very short time he had won the genuine affection 
of the leaders of both parties in the Senate. He loved to 
participate in the debates, and was always a dangerous 
opponent because of his fund of information, his quick 
mind, and his ready wit. The man who interrupted him 
while he was speaking always regretted it. The rules of 
the Senate were always a source of irritation to him. 
Shortly after his service began he started to speak on a 
live subject in which he was greatly interested, but which 
bore no direct relation to the pending bill. A Senator 
who desired to prevent his speaking arose and asked, 
"Mr. President, what is before the Senate?" "I am 
before the Senate," said Tillman, and while his interro- 
gator was counting the casualties Tillman proceeded to 
finish his speech. 

He knew little of parliamentary law and cared less. 
The truth is that Tillman had no regard for any kind of 
law. In his consideration of a proposition there was but 
one question, " Is it just?" If he became convinced that 
the object sought to be accomplished was a just and right- 
eous one, he was impatient of any interference by any law, 
rule, or regulation. 

With this indifference to law, and with the absolute 
power that he wielded while governor, the salvation of 
the people was, that Tillman acted always from impulse, 
and Tillman's impulses were always good. 

It is impossible here to refer to his many achievements 
in the Senate. He often referred to his fight in the Fifty- 
seventh Congress to compel recognition of South Caro- 
lina's claim against the Federal Government for money 
loaned by the State in the War of 1812. By this, .$386,000 
of the State's bonds held by the Federal Government as 
a debt against the State were canceled, and $89,137.36 
[91] 



Mkmoiual Addresses: Senator Tillman 

was returned to the State treasury in cash. That was a 
memorable fight, because it involved the two most pic- 
turesque figures in Congressional life — Farmer Ben Till- 
man and Uncle Joe Cannon. Mr. Cannon, as chairman 
of the House Appropriations Committee, refused to agree 
to the Senate amendment to an appropriation bill pro- 
viding for the payment of the South Carolina claim. 
Tillman got the floor in the Senate and declared that, 
unless the conferees agreed to it, the other appropriation 
bills not yet passed would never pass, because he nitended 
to talk from then until 12 o'clock the next day, March 
4, when the Congress must adjourn. At 3 o'clock in the 
morning Tillman seemed able to make good his threat 
and rather than provoke an extra session Mr. Cannon 
yielded. 

During the control of the Senate by the Republicans 
Tillman was placed in charge of the railroad-rate bill, 
and his successful handling of it won the commendation 
of liis colleagues. 

His exposure of the frauds of the armor-plate manufac- 
turers finally led to the construction by the Government 
of its own armor-plate plant. 

He established the Charleston Navy Yard and has con- 
sistently labored for its development. 

As chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee he devoted 
his time and talents to the development of the Navy, and 
he lived to see his efforts rewarded by the demonstration 
of naval efficiency in the world war that has won the 
plaudits of the Nation. 

As a legislator Tillman possessed what, unfortunately, 
many legislators do not possess — the courage of his con- 
victions. Former Senator Bailey, who for years sat by 
the side of Tillman in the Senate, declares that Tillman 
was not only the truest man he ever knew, but one of the 
most courageous. Mr. Bailey states that when the Senate 
[92] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

was about to vote on the question of expelling Senator 
Lorimer that Tillman sent for him, and when he went to 
his office he saw about 100 telegrams piled upon his desk. 
Tillman handed him about a dozen of them to read. The 
messages from South Carolinians declared the people of 
South Carolina were unanimous in the belief that Lori- 
mer should be unseated and that if he failed to vote 
to expel him it would endanger his reelection to the Sen- 
ate. Tillman told him that a man who was very close to 
him had come to Washington that morning to advise him 
that if he voted against expulsion he could not be re- 
elected. Bailey said he knew how anxious Tillman was 
to be reelected because of liis interest in pending prob- 
lems and stated, " Tillman, that is a question you must 
submit to your own conscience and I have no right to ad- 
vise you." " I expected you to say that," said Tillman. 
" I have submitted it to my conscience, and whether I be 
right or wrong, on the record before us I do not believe 
the man should be expelled, and whatever be the conse- 
quences I shall not vote to unseat him." He went to the 
Senate Chamber and voted his convictions. Many South 
Carolinians differed with him, but they had an abiding 
confidence in the honesty of Ben Tillman and respected 
his courage, and I doubt whether his vote in this case 
alienated a single friend. 

Tillman's service in the Senate quickly made him a 
national figure and he was in great demand as a public 
speaker. It was Champ Clark, Speaker of this House, 
who first suggested to a chautauqua organization that 
Tillman should be induced to go upon the lecture plat- 
form. They succeeded in inducing him to go upon a 
lecture tour, and thirty days after he started the presi- 
dent of the organization advised Mr. Clark that Tillman 
was the best drawing card they had. While he had sev- 
eral lectures, his lecture upon the race problem attracted 
[93] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

most attention. Through this lecture lie undoubtedly 
presented to the people of the North more clearly than 
did any other man the view of the South upon this ques- 
tion. But while rendering his section a service, the 
fatigue of the travel, after an arduous session, weakened 
him physically and contributed to his physical break- 
down. He was stricken with paralj'sis. From this stroke 
he recovered, and while he did not regain his former 
strength he continued his active service in the Senate 
until tliree days before his death on July third of this 
year. The last day he spent in his office I visited him and 
he read to me a letter he was about to send to Bennetts- 
ville, S. C, to be read at the senatorial campaign meeting 
scheduled for the following day. I think this was the last 
political act of his life, and so as the curtain went up on 
his political career at Bennettsville in 1885 with this 
letter the curtain fell upon his political career in July, 
1918. The intervening years he had crowded to the 
utmost with service to the people of South Carolina, and 
I make bold to say that when the history of this period 
is written the historian of the future, freed from the 
prejudice engendered by political contests, will say not 
only that he was " a Carolinian and a patriot," but he will 
say that Benjamin Ryan Tillman was the greatest man 
that South Carolina has produced. 

So much for his political life. I must speak of his pri- 
vate life, because great as was my admiration for him as 
governor and Senator greater still was my love for him 
as a man. In 1868 he married Miss Sallie A. Stark, of 
Elbert, Ga., and to this union were born six children, five 
of whom are living — Benjamin Ryan Tillman, jr.; Capt. 
Henry Cumming Tillman; Mrs. Lona Tillman Moore; 
Mrs. Sophia Tillman Hughes; and Mrs. Sallie Mae Till- 
man Shuler. 



[94] 



Address of Mr. Byrnes, of South Carolina 

I have never known a man more devoted to his family 
than was Senator Tillman. His devotion to his wife was 
the devotion of a boy to his sweetheart, and when forced 
by circumstances to be separated from her for even a day 
he was the unhappiest man on earth. On one occasion 
while accompanying him to his office he informed me that 
that day was the anniversaiy of his wedding, and I shall 
never forget with what sincerity he spoke of the happiness 
of his married life. When in Washington Mrs. Tillman 
spent everj' afternoon in his office, and to her Senator 
Tillman would submit his problems and invariably be 
guided by her wise counsel. 

During recent years there was hardly a day during the 
sessions of Congress that I did not either visit his office 
or speak with him over the telephone. I came to love 
him, and in return he treated me as he would one of his 
sons. As 1 learned to know him I wondered how, even 
in the heat of political contests, his enemies misjudged 
him as they did. I saw his finer qualities, his love of 
truth, and his hatred of hypocrisy; his love of his fellow 
man and his sympathy for the downtrodden and the un- 
fortunate; his chivalrous respect for women and his love 
of children. I learned, too, of his simple but firm faith 
in a Supreme Being, and to-day, as I recall how in daily 
life he practiced religion, I have an abiding confidence 
that a just and merciful God has granted to him that 
eternal rest to which a life of service justly entitles him. 



[95] 



Address of Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: For 40 years John C. Calhoun so thor- 
oughly dominated politics in South Carolina that it was 
said, " When Calhoun took snuff the State sneezed." One 
of the characteristics of the volatile-minded and chival- 
rous people of South Carolina is hero worship. They 
idolized Calhoun for nearly half a century. They fol- 
lowed Gen. Hampton from 1876 to 1890, and they gave 
their indorsement to the late Senator Tillman for more 
than a quarter of a century. 

An adequate review of the activities of Senator Tillman 
in South Carolina, from the day that he began his agita- 
tion for certain reforms in the educational and govern- 
mental systems of the State until, weary with the warfare, 
he yielded himself in defeat to the unconquered master of 
man, would require the services of an historian rather 
than that of the eulogist. Suffice it to say that the move- 
ment in the politics of the State which gave Senator Till- 
man an opportunity for the display of his fiery and rugged 
eloquence was the inevitable outgrowth of conditions 
which had long existed and which were the results of a 
situation peculiar to the State. 

Senator Tillman first attracted attention to himself by 
a series of articles in the Charleston News and Courier, in 
which he advocated the establishment of an institution for 
industrial and technical education. These articles drew 
the fire of the able editor of that paper, the late Capt. 
F. W. Dawson. Those who followed these brilliant ex- 
changes were quick to see that each gladiator found in the 
other a foeman worthy of his steel, and that in the hitherto 
comparatively unknown Tillman there lay genius for 
leadership which would have to be reckoned with. 

[96] 



Address of Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 

In 1885 he delivered, at a farmers' convention, a speech 
which caught the ears of a large and discontented element 
of the State and created a standing interest in the un- 
couth but earnest man from the hill country of the State. 
This element made a strong fight for control of the State 
government in 1888, but was unsuccessful. In 1890 they 
called a convention, known locally as the March conven- 
tion, and nominated Capt. Tillman their candidate for 
governor. Those who opposed this movement, which was 
not strictly an agrarian movement, but was rather a move- 
ment representing a protest and certain demands, agreed 
upon Attorney General Joseph H. Earle and Gen. John B. 
Bratton, a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, 
both men of the highest character, courage, patriotism, 
and ability, to represent them in the contest. 

The campaign began at Greenville in June of that year, 
and joint debates were held in every county in the State. 
Never perhaps in any State in the Union have there been 
witnessed such scenes of enthusiasm and bitterness, of 
crimination and recrimination, of sharp attack and 
sharper counterattack. However, it became very soon ap- 
-parent that the people had discovered another idol, and 
that a tidal wave was sweeping the State from the moun- 
tain to the seaboard, and that the election of Capt. Till- 
man and his followers was inevitable. 

Capt. Tillman was elected governor by an overwhelm- 
ing majority, and immediately upon his induction into the 
office of governor he set about to put into law the reforms 
which he had so vigorously and with such masterful and 
powerful eloquence advocated upon the stump. 

He was fought with intense bitterness at every point. 
The press of the State was almost unanimous against him 
and his program; practically every lawyer fought him, 
and what has since become known as big business was 
violently against him, but he had the support of that 

115070°— 19 7 . [97] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

class of citizenship which is frequently referred to as the 
middle class, and he was reelected hy an overwhelming 
vote in 1892. And with a legislature which had finally 
become friendly to him he succeeded during his incum- 
bency as governor in the establishment of the Agricultural 
and Mechanical College at Fort Hill, the old home of Cal- 
houn. In addition to this, the normal and industrial col- 
lege for women, known as Winthrop College, was estab- 
lished, and which is now regarded as foremost in the Na- 
tion of institutions of its character. It was during his 
term as governor that the dispensary law, an important 
method for the control of the liquor trafTic, was put into 
operation, a system which proved conclusively that liquor 
makes bad morals and bad government. It was during 
this time that the primary system for the nomination of 
candidates for public office from the United States Sen- 
ator down to township commissioner was inaugurated. 
An attempt was made to equalize taxation and a spectacu- 
lar contest between the chief executive and certain large 
corporations took place with the result in favor of the 
chief executive. 

These and many other reforms have profoundly affected 
the course of affairs in the State during the last quarter 
of a century, and while yet a subject of controversy it is 
safe to say that the preponderance of judgment will war- 
rant the statement that the four years of Senator Tillman 
as governor of the State witnessed more constructive and 
far-reaching legislation than had ever been given to the 
State before in a like period of time. All credit for this, 
however, can not be given in justice to Senator Tillman, 
for he was surrounded in his counsels by earnest and far- 
seeing men, and yet it would be equally unfair to deny 
that the larger share of credit belongs to his genius for 
leadersliip and constructive suggestion. 



[98] 



Address of Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 

The historian will likely say that the reform movement, 
or, as it is more frequently referred to, " The Tillman 
movement," was strong and helpful in the thoroughness 
with which it taught the people their power, and weak in 
its failure, as thoroughly, to teach them how to use that 
power. If the program of the reform movement at that 
time had included the logical sequence of all that it stood 
for, it should have provided for a more effective system 
of public education, because the possession of power with- 
out a thorough knowledge of a proper and correct use 
of it is most dangerous. Calmly reviewing the events of 
those stirring days, and the conditions that made these 
events possible, and the results that have come from 
them, the conclusion is inevitable that they were a neces- 
sary process in the evolution of popular government in 
the State and that genuine democracy w^as advanced by 
them. 

The biographer is likely to say that Senator Tillman's 
most conspicuous service to the people was rendered as a 
State rather than as a national leader. It was in State 
affairs that his leadership was most conspicuous and ag- 
gressive, and he will live longest in the minds of the people 
for his work in State matters. His name is indissolvably 
linked with the two great industrial colleges for men and 
women. They, in themselves, are sufficient to place Sena- 
tor Tillman on the very highest pedestal of statesman- 
ship. These colleges are performing a service for the 
young men and the young women of the State whose 
value can not be estimated. 

And the primary system, crude as it was, and is still, 
has nevertheless brought the people in more direct con- 
trol of their government, and will alwaj's be looked upon 
as a monument of his work. It is an evidence of the 
genuine democracy which, in the last analysis, was the 



[99] 



Memorial Addkesses: Senator Tillman 



of his long and rcuiarkabic domination of an over- 
whelming majority of his fellow citizens. 

In 1894 he became a candidate for the United States 
Senate against Gen. Matthew Calbraith Butler, who for 
18 years had represented the State in the United States 
Senate with signal ability and vitality. Again the State 
was shaken from the mountains to the seaboard with the 
fury of the contest, but the result was never in doubt and 
Senator Tillman was elected by a tremendous majority. 

A study of the contest will show the force and power of 
Senator Tillman in middle life. No one who witnessed 
them can ever forget his almost uncanny recognition of a 
psychological moment when addressing a popular audi- 
ence. As a stump speaker he was absolutely irresistible 
and without an equal. His vocabulary was thoroughly 
Anglo-Saxon, pure and pointed, the right word always in 
the right place. He was a student of the classics and 
learned deeply from them. His style was volcanically 
explosive, and hence almost irresistible, while his man- 
nerisms were unique and original. His gesticulation was 
awkward but effective. His facial expression was a 
powerful asset to him as a speaker, and his voice, a high 
tenor, had great carrying power and was the ideal out- 
door speaking voice. 

It is not recorded that he ever quailed or hesitated be- 
fore a dangerous situation, or that he was ever hit when 
he could not strike back at least a little harder. Others 
have imitated him and his methods with some degree of 
success, but his place as a campaigner before popular 
audiences will long remain all his own. 

It had been the wish of many of his friends that in his 
own way he might preserve for posterity his recollection 
and impression of the remarkable scenes of which he was 
chief actor, and it is still the hope of his friends that a 



[100] 



Address of Mr. Lever, of South Carolina 

competent and impartial biographer may rescue from 
forgetfulness these scenes. 

It was not long after Senator Tillman took his seat as 
a Senator that he attracted national attention by a bitter 
and spectacular attack upon the Cleveland administra- 
tion. These were the days when the agitation for free 
silver began to take possession of the imagination of the 
South and the West, which were then suffering from stag- 
nation in business and from extremely low prices for 
farm products. His declaration, " Sixteen to one or 
bust," became a classic in the campaign of 1896, when 
Gold v. Silver fought their final contest for supremacy in 
this country. Fi'om the day of this speech until his last 
appearance upon the floor of the Senate he was a marked 
man. As he grew in experience and in age, and when 
responsibility began to rest more and more heavily upon 
him, he gradually, as is usual in all cases, began to grow 
more and more "conservative and more and more inclined 
to tolerate the opinions of others. His contact with the 
brainiest men of the Nation was a great training for him, 
and his breadth of vision increased with his more com- 
prehensive understanding of the problems and of the 
variety and conflicting interests of a great Republic. 

Senators of the type of Chandler, of New Hampshire; 
the scholarly Senator Hoar and his equally able colleague. 
Senator Lodge; the brilliant Senator Spooner; the gen- 
tlemanly and dignified Senator Hale soon discovered in 
the new Senator from South Carolina, whose large brown 
eye blazed with the love of combat, an intellect, a cour- 
age, and wisdom, and a knowledge worthy of the 'best 
traditions of the greatest legislative body in the world. 
He was not long in establishing his right of leadership in 
this body of great men, and this he held without dispute 
until the fatal disease which was his undoing laid its 
hands upon him. Four times he was elected to the Sen- 
[101] 



IMemorial Addresses: Senator Tillman 

ate by the almost unanimous vote of his people, and even 
his bitterest enemies must and do concede that his atti- 
tude as a Senator, in almost eveiy instance, was represen- 
tative of the majority thought of his State. He had a 
most highly developed capacity for divining public 
opinion, but likewise had a capacity in an equal degree 
toward making public opinion. He was more generally 
a leader of thought than a follower of it. His mind was 
of the imperious kind; he dominated everj'thing about 
him. He loved power, but he did not abuse it. 

No man in the history of the State, save Calhoun alone, 
so completely and for so long a time held his sway over 
its people, and this was not due to his personal popularity, 
for, while he had warm and loyal friends, he was not of 
the type whose success was due to a personal following. 
He won his way by sheer force of intellect and courage 
and the belief of his followers in his patriotism and hon- 
esty. They trusted him without stint. 

The home life of Senator Tillman was beautiful. His 
passionate love for flowers, his deep and abiding devo- 
tion to his family are well known. His roughness of man- 
ner and speech were more apparent than real. Under the 
rough exterior there was a kindly heart. Children loved 
him, and the intuition of children is unerring in its 
accuracy. 

This hastily prepared glimpse of the character and 
service of this great man is all too brief, but eulogy can 
not do him justice. That must be left to the biogra- 
pher. May he be fair and competent, that the generations 
to come may he able to form a correct estimate of the 
place in history which Senator Tfllman shall fill. 



[102] 



ADJOURNMENT. 

The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Byrnes of South Caro- 
lina). In accordance with the provisions of the resolution 
heretofore adopted the House will now stand adjourned. 

Accordingly, at 2 o'clock and 7 minutes p. m., the House 
adjourned until to-morrow, Monday, December 16, 1918, 
at 12 o'clock noon. 



Monday, December 16, WIS. 
A message from the Senate, by Mr. Waldorf, its enroll- 
ing clerk, announced that the Senate had passed the fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

Resolved, That tbie Senate expresses its profound sorrow in the 
death of the Hon. Benjamin Ryan Tillman, late a Senator from 
the State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased the Senate, in pursuance of an order heretofore made, 
assembles to enable his associates to pay proper tribute to his 
liigh character and distinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the 
family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That as a mark of further respect to the memory of 
the deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 



[103] 



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